I don’t sleep well.
One dog likes to sleep on my head when she’s cold. And the other dog sleeps on my feet until she gets too hot.
My lack of peaceful sleeping could be a result of the constant poking, smacking, and hearing, “Roll Over!” throughout the night by the human on my left. I don’t snore!
I’ve tried tricking my body into rem by taking melatonin. My mind thinks the organic remedy is silly. I mean, the voices in my head are always laughing; so, that must be it.
Someone offered the advice of meditating and controlling my breathing as I lay awake in bed. That lasted about four point two seconds before my mind wandered, wondering why Tuesday became famous for tacos. Seriously, can we start a new fad called Nacho Friday? Or Tequila After 3? The alliteration is slightly off, but when tequila’s involved, does it matter?
Since the organic remedy didn’t help, I went for the assorted drugs therapy to pull me into another plane of existence. This treatment worked, but the crazy dreams made me feel like I ran a marathon all night and was still exhausted in the morning. Why does my brain want to go grocery shopping at 3am? There’s enough food in the fridge. I swear.
When I finally pulled my crusty lids apart in the morning after my marathon/ grocery shopping binge, I found two weird dots in my ear. So either I poked myself in the middle of the night and was too stoned to realize I poked myself or those drugs opened a gateway to an alien farm and the dots are actually a transmitter to the Greys. And that’s why I stopped the drug method because I don’t want to become the center of attention on an alien episode on the History Channel.
It all feels hopeless, that is, until last night at three in the morning, I went outside for a smoke and pulled up social media on my phone. One of the first memes on the scroll read, “You have to be at peace, in order to sleep peacefully.” Sorry, I don’t have a source offhand. It was 3 in the morning! I’m not sure if that post was ironic or considered synchronicity, but either way, it got me thinking.
We spend so much time of our daily lives in survival mode that I think sometimes we forget about living. We get so wrapped up with coping, we can’t see the light of day, let alone the darkness behind our eyelids.
How do we sleep peacefully, you might ask as though I’m a direct source to your creator—oh, wait—I do have that transmitter in my ear, so I’ll give it a shot.
Finding peace is different for each of us. Maybe find a hobby that doesn’t involve the kids and the spouse. If you’ve always wanted to learn underwater basket weaving, I’m sure there’s a course at your local adult education center in town. It’s an hour and a half every Nacho Friday on Taco Tuesday.
The point is, when we allow our lives to get away from us, how can we possibly feel grounded or centered or at peace? The only thing we can control is ourselves and how we react or respond to everyday issues. So, next time you can’t sleep, don’t blame the errand running, the kids’ soccer games, your boss, or the scary movie you watched right before bed. Blame yourself for making you second.