Ugh, this past week has been a nightmare. I'm not sure if I really suffer from DSPS (Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome), but my body has always preferred going to bed after midnight (preferrably between 3 am to 6 am), and waking up after 8 or 9 hours of solid sleep. No matter what schedule I kept, my body would just naturally fall in to that pattern if given the chance.

Anyway, this past week, converting to day-walker schedule was horrendous. It seems the only way I was going to get a full night's sleep is with melatonin. I tried some generic sleeping pills (I believe it's the same active ingredient as those in sinus medication) but it just made me wake up in the middle of the night after the pills wore off. Melatonin was a bit better in keeping me asleep, though there was a night where I wasn't tired when I took the pill and went to bed, and I ended up waking up 4 hours later.

So the trick is to get tired, even just a bit, and take melatonin an hour before bed, and hopefully it will keep me asleep for at least 7 hours so I can make it through the next day.

Whateley had an even worse time than me. The sleeping pill made his heart race (though that may have been psychological more than physiological), and the melatonin only helped when he was really tired to begin with. But he would wake up after only 3 hours of sleep, and he'd toss-and-turn for hours, end up going downstairs to watch TV, and dropping off to that. Since the TV seems to help him sleep, lately, he's tried just falling asleep to the TV, waking up after about 5 hours, climbing upstairs to bed, and finish sleeping for another hour or two. Anyway, he has a much harder time with anything sleep-related, and once he wakes up after sleeping for a couple of hours, he is up and cannot go back to sleep, no matter how tired he is. Let's just say, he's been rather cranky all week.

It's odd joining the rest of the world. For one thing, everywhere we go, there are tons more people around. We've never had to wait in line at a supermarket checkout stand before, and suddenly we're waiting in line everywhere. There are more cars on the road when we're on the road, and it's been annoying not only having to deal with rush hour traffic, but just any traffic at all when we're driving.

It's been odd going to a restaurant and having to wait for a table. And Whateley got rather bright-pink doing yard work the other day, since before, the sun is usually on it's way to setting when we'd even consider stepping outside.

Still, it has been nice being able to run errands and getting things done without having to rush out the door as soon as we wake up. We can even go to Costco after work, and pick up groceries for dinner at other places besides the Walmart. And as soon as we get off our duffs, we can even enjoy some of the weekend activities this city has to offer that we've missed out on for over a year.

Anyway, in case anyone missed it, our new work schedule is 8 am to 7 pm, Tuesday through Friday.