My brain never stops. When I lay down to sleep at night I can't stop thinking. I try but I just can't do it so I end up thinking about silly things simply because my brain doesn't know how to stop. This is really annoying when I'm tired at night and I don't fall asleep right away. Adam is and has always been a gifted sleeper. He comes from an entire family of gifted sleepers. They can sleep at any time and in any place. In the middle of the day on a bus to Kansas? No problem. On a plane? Ha! They can be asleep before the plane backs out of the gate even if they are in a middle seat! No reclined seat required. I, on the other hand, can't even sleep on an overnight flight to Europe sitting in business class fully reclined with a soft blanket and pillow and sleep mask with a full dose of Tylenol PM in my system. I blame my family--we are a bunch of non-gifted sleepers. We like sleep. We need a lot of it and we'd like to have even more, but you will not find any of us fast asleep on an airplane, in a car, and especially not on a bus. It just isn't going to happen.
Why am I talking about this? Well, it was just something I was thinking about last night when I couldn't fall asleep and Adam was sleeping like a baby even though he got to bed a good 20 min. after I did.
Does it matter? Nope.
Is it going to change? Nah.
Have I made peace with it? Mostly. Every so often I'll wake him up to let him know that I haven't fallen asleep yet. It's completely silly but somehow it makes me feel a teeny bit better. He said it doesn't bother him and why should it? He can fall back to sleep instantly. Never once in our entire married life has Adam been unable to sleep. Any time I'm upset or excited about something or have a lot on my mind my sleep suffers. It will be interesting to see what side of the family the kids will take after. Here is what it is looking like so far:
Britton- My side of the family. His thoughts definitely affect his sleep and he doesn't sleep well in a car.(Sorry Britton!) The older he gets the less sleep he needs so he might take after my mom who I discovered needs hardly any sleep at all! (Of course I need so much sleep myself that I didn't discover that my Mom didn't need any until I was well into my 20's)
Jenna- Night owl and great sleeper -Adam's side of the family.
Korinne- Jury is still out. At this point it could go either way.
This isn't a picture of Adam, but it could be. He really is that gifted.
This "thinking problem" isn't just something that happens at night either, it's happening all day every day. Every 4th of 5th thought might be something that I want to share with Adam so I'll say something and then I'll quickly be on to something else. Before too long I can be on a completely different subject and while it is very clear to me how I got from one subject to another when I say something to Adam he sees it as a random shot out of left field. I know I've really stumped him when he says, "Ummm. . .. (pause) ok. That was random." We get a good laugh sometimes when I go back and explain to him how I got from one idea to another.
I tell him it's all about keeping the mystery alive.
3 comments:
Nate says we are twins separated at birth. I could have written this exact same post. It is story/curse of my life. Nate has the best of both worlds . . . he sleeps like a rock and can get by on 6 hours a night.
I laughed at your "that was random" comment too. I do the same thing. We call them links in the chain. It is all a continuous string in my mind, but Nate only gets to hear every seventh link so they seem like non-sequiturs.
Love this post!
I am incredibly gifted in the sleep department (maybe it is a Campbell gene). I truly don't remember the last time it took me 2 minutes to fall asleep--no exaggeration. Poor Jacob, quite the opposite. But he requires less sleep, so that is a bonus.
And your "thinking problem" is so me. Jacob calls the random comments my "butterfly thinking." As in, catch it if you can. My mind has changed subjects, why can't he follow? :)
Ha! I can sleep in a car. In fact, I'm quite good at it when Steve is driving. I was tired for a few minutes at 7:30 tonight. I hope the urge returns soon.
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