Lesser of Two Evils?

Three weeks later, my sleep schedule is still a bit lark-ish, although more complicated than I would like to see. Once my pattern had shifted to a 7-8am wake up time, I decided to start using melatonin again to see if I could maintain that pattern. I'd tried it before, without much luck. It would help me fall asleep earlier, but didn't do much for my wake up time. And it only did that for a few days before it stopped working.

I thought that maybe now that my body had shifted in response to the stress, I could use the melatonin to maintain that shift indefinitely. So I busted out the Plantidotes Nite-trition:


Good stuff! You know what? It's working. If I don't take it, I sleep until my normal 9-10am wake up time and generally wake up a lot during the night now too. (Yeah, the ongoing nightmares don't help.) But if I do take it, about half an hour before bed, I sleep through the night and wake up between 7:00 and 8:00am. Amazing!!!!

I know there are all kinds of theories about when you should take the melatonin, but this is what's working for me now, and I'm not going to mess with it. This way, I still don't wake up early enough to get to a corporate job or some such thing, but it's perfect for my work-at-home lifestyle.

Unfortunately, normalcy still comes with a price. The Sleep Hangovers are at their worst ever, with no sign of letting up. This means that some days it doesn't matter that I wake up early because I'm literally so nauseated that I can't get out of bed for an hour or two anyway. Other days I get up just long enough to stumble to the bathroom and throw up, then crawl back in bed waiting for it to go away. If I fall back asleep until my normal 9-10am, I'll wake up feeling just fine.

Plus, the complete lack of coordination has definitely taken a toll on me physically. I now have a bona fide Sleep Hangover related injury.


And no, there's just no way to take a flattering photo of your own thigh. My leg isn't really that wavy, that's light coming in through wavy window glass. That is, however, a very bad tan line. I drive a convertible, and that's the price you pay. :-P

How, you ask, did this happen??? I tried to make tea with a bad sleep hangover. Not the smartest thing I've ever done, obviously. I have a vintage oven that is definitely not up to 2008 safety standards, especially that really sharp part of the oven door handle. Shall we say my spatial judgment was, oh, a *bit* off? I ran smack into it and ended up curled up on the floor, howling in pain and bleeding.

So...again I ask, is it worth it?? I'm still not sure which schedule I prefer. When I wake up at my normal time, I'm always a bit groggy and mornings are never chirpy, bright and happy. But I can make tea without killing myself, and I can keep it down when I drink it.

Those are good things, I think.

The experiment continues...send vibes that I live through it!