Good in bed

A few nights ago I read awhile in bed, then lay down to sleep. But my mind wouldn't shut off. Finally, at 2:00 I got up and fixed myself some cereal--mixing cheerios, bran flakes, craizins, and chocolate chips. I used 2% milk instead of the usual rice milk. Turned the TV on and ate. Then I read an article that Pat had given me from a magazine--she thought I would be interested--and wow! I sure was.

The article was entitled "Good in Bed" -- written by Julie Rottenberg, who was a producer of HBO's "Sex & the City." No, it was not about sex. It was about sleeping. Never before had I read anyone who openly admitted to sleeping late most everyday. Rottenberg writes about her "talent" for sleeping late. Really, really late. Until noon or later.

I was so glad to read about someone else like me. I am a late sleeper, not because I'm lazy or weird, but because that's the way I'm wired. My body has to have at least 10 hours of sleep a night. If I don't get that sleep, not only am I exhausted all day, but I am actually in pain; I have muscle spasms in my chest and back, sharp pains...and trouble getting a deep breath.

Rottenberg writes about how she has many times lied about sleeping late -- telling friends she had to run errands, and that's why she couldn't join them for breakfast. I've done the same thing over the years. She talks about the "stigma" attached to sleeping late. For some reason many if not most people think everyone should be up at the crack of dawn or there is something wrong with them. Well, I'd love to get up at the crack of dawn every morning. But my body rebels and attacks me when I have to do that. I have felt guilty all my adult life for having to sleep later than other people. I have experienced self-loathing because of my sleep cycle. But there is nothing wrong with me, it's just the way I was born. Even in college I missed early classes quite often because I just couldn't physically get there every day.

I am a 'night person.' I work the best in the afternoon and evening. Morning is not a good time for me to concentrate. I am most efficient when I keep to my natural sleep cycle and not try to be like 'everyone else.' But I have a sneaking suspicion that there are a lot more of us late sleepers out there than we know. Some people can  get by on just a few hours of sleep a night. I envy them.

Rottenberg ends her article like this:

So when I find myself lying in bed on a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, plagued with the feeling that I should get up and embrace the day, I do not. Instead, I abandon all guilt and shame, put my sleep mask on, roll over, commit to sleeping, and continue sleeping until I can sleep no longer. I firmly believe that only then, in the deepest of sleep, can true progress begin.

I hope all of us who are talented at sleeping late will rise up (but not too early) and resist all people who practice the prejudice of 'sleepism.' We need to teach all the others that God didn't make us all the same; there is variety in sleep patterns just as there is variety in the flower garden. I don't have to be like you, and you don't have to be like me. Thanks be to God.

Good night.


                                              [the article was in Real Simple magazine, Feb. 2009]