Sleep Sweetly Sleep

I love sleeping. I love naps. I don't like the idea of Power naps . I like my afternoon siesta stretched to 2 hrs. I love waking with a head clear of weight and feeling warm afternoon Sun on my cheeks and eyelids. Add a cup of ginger & clove tea  and that's my idea of life.  Heaven ! Well, close. Rewind 4 years of my life reel and it was not such a rare thing. I wasn't working ... actually could not work (forced decision because of my dependent visa status).  I blamed  my break on the government policy  and LIVED LIFE ! I stayed up late, woke up late and took naps. I did not know that it was God's way of compensation to what was  to follow. Four years and two kids later the idea of sound, uninterrupted sleep exists only in my fantasy . Familiar to many moms around the world,  here is my nightly schedule beating up the 'Sleep tight' stages of full night's rest-

Waking -
The waking stage is referred to as relaxed wakefulness, because this is the stage in which the body prepares for sleep. My relaxed wakefullness schedule after the kids have gone to bed - plop the notebook in my lap ,free of children only at this hour, check emails, replying to them or postponing replies to hop on cnn.com or msnbc.com to check the latest scoop on Sarah Palin (just kidding).  After realizing that nothing in the world outside my world has changed much from yesterday or day before, I decide to check tomorrow's calendar and get a head start on that - packing water and dry snacks in our Great Park sack (I love to use it for everything - from toting library books to groceries). Groceries on my list - I check to see if I have coupons for anything (yep ! I clip coupons ). Oh, Did I mention the dishes, leftovers and cleaning kitchen because sometimes I leave that for until after kids have gone to bed , to spend some more "meaningful time" with them. So, the relaxed wakefullness period .................ahem..........is not the onset of what's to come as next stage of sleep cycle. 

Stage 1 
Stage 1 sleep, or drowsiness - usually lasts for 5-10 minutes. When I should be taking cues to head to bed, I remember to brush my teeth and put my socks on. I approach my memory foam , my body and brain longing to shut the world up. As I lay down, ready to hit the stage 3 , my brain refuses to co-operate , it refuses to slow down. Instead its on lightening speed, flashing a gazillion images and thoughts. I beg for it to slow down, I somehow try to train it to not think, not at this hour anyway. It works as my muscles relax and my heart rate begins to slow down. Finally when I am ready to drift off, Neev who co-sleeps with me and is used to nursing on demand, wakes up and would not get back to sleep without a snack. There......my hard work at stage 1 sleep ....ha...ha !

Stage 2 
Stage 2 is a period of light sleep during which polysomnographic readings show intermittent peaks and valleys, or positive and negative waves. I am more than ready at this point and somehow manage to rest. 

Stages 3 and 4 
These are deep sleep stages, with Stage 4 being more intense than Stage 3. These stages are known as slow-wave, or delta, sleep.  Well, sometimes I sleep thru' it and sometimes not. 

Non-REM Sleep 
The period of non-REM sleep (NREM)is comprised of Stages 1-4 and lasts from 90 to 120 minutes, each stage lasting anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. Surprisingly, however, Stages 2 and 3 repeat backwards before REM sleep is attained. So, a normal sleep cycle has this pattern: waking, stage 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, REM. Usually, REM sleep occurs 90 minutes after sleep onset.

Some nights if I am lucky, I complete Non REM cycle and enter the next one but on most nights during this stage, Avi works his way to slip in family bed and the game of returning him to his bed starts which include bathroom break & massage of his back and feet (his favorite excuse to sleep in family bed - "my back and feet are hurting and they need a massage"). Trust me, we have already ruled out the possibility of this being true (with Doctor). 

Stage 5, REM 
REM sleep is distinguishable from NREM sleep by changes in physiological states, including its characteristic rapid eye movements. Intense dreaming occurs during REM sleep as a result of heightened cerebral activity. I am not even sure if I want to enter this cycle. Yep ....I don't want to dream....................most of the times they don't make any sense anyway and other times they are completely weird and if I manage to remember them , my next day is spent trying to analyze it and make heads or tails of it. So nope, I don't want dreams, I need sleep - good, long, unbroken, undisturbed and unending (I don't have a death wish, I just don't want a clock to govern it on some days). 

And before I know it............. tick tock, tick tock , its time to sing "Good morning, Good morning, Good morning to you. Our day is beginning , there's so much to do". 

There is so much to do. Ain't that true !