BrockLi Soup

I’ve heard stories about people that don’t need to set an alarm. It’s not because they don’t need one, because they can stroll into the office whenever they please, though I’ve known people like that, too. Rather, they just don’t need one: they decide what time they want to wake up, and then they just do.

I’ve never been that kind of person. I’m the kind of person who sets an alarm and then hits the snooze button for over an hour.

But this week, I went to bed every night knowing that wasn’t going to be an option. I knew I would be having early-morning meetings almost every day, and the shuttle from the Metro to our office had a newer, crappier schedule, so I simply had to drag my ass out of bed on time every day. And so I did. This is the third day in a row I’ve woken up before my alarm went off - making it only the fifth time ever, by my count.

Riding on the success of two alarmless mornings, I decided to try an experiment last night. I told myself I wanted to be up at 5:45. I said, I’ve got 7 hours to sleep, and then I have to wake up.

And then I set my alarm for 6. I wasn’t that optimistic.

But then, I woke up at 5:43, and got up right at 5:45. I feel pretty good - better rested than most mornings, and I’ve got some time to write about sleep before heading in to work (the aforementioned shuttle schedule means that if I get to the Metro by work before 7:30, I’ll just be sitting around waiting there, so I’ve got some time to kill at home).

Now, I don’t know if I managed to actually convince my internal clock to wake me up. I may have spent the night half-asleep with one eye on the clock, just to prove I could wake up when I wanted to - we’ll see how I feel in a couple hours, I guess. Either way, I’m going to try this for the next week and see how it goes, because I’d really rather just wake up and start my day refreshed than fight with my alarm every morning.

Have you ever woken up and thought, “Crap, I need to get up for work! How many times have I hit snooze?” Then you roll over and see it’s only 1:40, and you’re not even halfway through all the sleeping? That happened to me last night. It was awesome.

I also dreamt of iminlikewithyou.com. Is that worse than dreaming of Twitter?

Have you ever taken one of those naps where you just blink and an hour goes by? That happened to me just after we pulled away from the gate in Atlanta. When I opened my eyes, we were halfway to DC and they were serving drinks. I didn’t get to sleep at all in the airport, and just passed out before we even taxied to the runway.

I also forgot to mention that I neglected to take off my belt (and more importantly, my belt buckle) at security, and was thus treated to a San Francisco pat-down courtesy of the TSA. Nothing like standing in the middle of a busy airport, crucifixion-style, while some guy prods your crotch.

I got back to the apartment around noon yesterday, took a quick shower, and fell asleep for seven hours. Did some grocery shopping, washed some laundry, then fell asleep again - for another ten hours - at about 4 AM. I’m feeling quite refreshed today.

I’ve spent 16 of the past 24 hours asleep, and it’s the best sleep I’ve had in months.

I’m starting to think that my recent fatigue may not be the cause of too much sleep after all. I’ve been having some crazy-ass dreams lately. I won’t bore you with the details (because really, no one wants to hear about other peoples’ dreams unless they’re a psychiatrist, and that’s only because they’re being paid). Last night’s episode featured a full cast, including Nim, Heewa (we joined a frat together), Govind (he wanted to join the frat), BP, Heise (he got deported), Schmitty (didn’t get deported, but I thought he did), Rhubarb, Dan Lee, some guy from my high school that might be named Tom (I can’t remember), Miss Baer (an English teacher from high school), and a girl that I barely recognized, but she knew me. I wish I could remember more about her, because I’m curious if it really was someone from my past that I just couldn’t place when I saw here in my dream. I’m also wondering if she called me Randy or Brock - what does my subconscious think of me as?

I wake up tired every day because I’ve spent the night running around campus and joining frats. Based on years of exhaustive study, I know that my dreaming patterns are inversely proportional the amount I’ve been drinking lately: if it’s been a dry month, I’ll dream a lot. A month into fall, after everyone has come back and thrown parties, my subconscious has given up. Obviously, this provides a simple solution, but I’m not sure I want to cure dreams by killing off brain cells.

On the other hand, it did work for anxiety.

I need less sleep. Usually when I’m tired during the day or wake up cranky, I think I need more sleep. With this 12-8 schedule, though, I’ve had no trouble getting 8 hours every night. I’m pretty much ready to go to bed by 2 AM, and my alarm doesn’t go off until 10. Last time I was on co-op, two years ago, I would get up at 6. I was still on CSH time, though, so I never got more than 5 hours of sleep unless it was the weekend. Now, I’m getting too much sleep. It’s been working out pretty well for the most part - my most productive hours have always been from 10 - 2 at night, so I’ve been getting stuff done.

I need to go to bed later, because I’m sure as hell not getting up any earlier.