WG's new schedule
Dec. 6th, 2006 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusI came home last night and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wildernessguru was sprawled on the couch, limp as a dishrag. He'd bought groceries but hadn't finished putting them away and I discovered the milk and yogurt were still in his pack.
"They are?" he said, barely able to drum up interest.
This is Mr. Neat, Mr. Thorough, the man whose drawers were so organized when we met I asked if he was in the military. (Close. As a firefighter he had to find his clothes in the dark.) The man who reorganizes the fridge to put away the orange juice.
I looked at his tired eyes and knew this was a man at the end of his rope. I set aside all my homework, put away the groceries, made dinner, and set him in front of a movie.
His work hours changed a few weeks ago from 7:00am - 3:30pm to 6:00am - 2:30pm, which means he now has to be up at 3:30 in the morning.
He does errands and gets home around four-thirty and tries to got to bed around 8 or 9 (both of which are too late) and we've given up all our TV shows, but he really doesn't get any sleep until 10pm. At best he's getting five hours a night. I stay up till midnight most nights. He says I don't keep him awake, but I know what happens to me in the morning.
When he gets up at 3:30, I wake up and then get two hours of fitful dozing while he bumps around. Then I wake up again at 5:15am when he heads out to work. I try to sleep after that; sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. He's a much lighter sleeper than me, so I bet those hours from 10pm - midnight aren't really sleep.
The way our schedules overlap, we're getting three hours sleep a night.
My last day of school is Friday and finals end Wednesday, so that'll solve it for the short term. The house is clean, we're fed, the cat's petted (always a priority) and we're surviving but, man, something has to give.
wildernessguru was sprawled on the couch, limp as a dishrag. He'd bought groceries but hadn't finished putting them away and I discovered the milk and yogurt were still in his pack. "They are?" he said, barely able to drum up interest.
This is Mr. Neat, Mr. Thorough, the man whose drawers were so organized when we met I asked if he was in the military. (Close. As a firefighter he had to find his clothes in the dark.) The man who reorganizes the fridge to put away the orange juice.
I looked at his tired eyes and knew this was a man at the end of his rope. I set aside all my homework, put away the groceries, made dinner, and set him in front of a movie.
His work hours changed a few weeks ago from 7:00am - 3:30pm to 6:00am - 2:30pm, which means he now has to be up at 3:30 in the morning.
He does errands and gets home around four-thirty and tries to got to bed around 8 or 9 (both of which are too late) and we've given up all our TV shows, but he really doesn't get any sleep until 10pm. At best he's getting five hours a night. I stay up till midnight most nights. He says I don't keep him awake, but I know what happens to me in the morning.
When he gets up at 3:30, I wake up and then get two hours of fitful dozing while he bumps around. Then I wake up again at 5:15am when he heads out to work. I try to sleep after that; sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. He's a much lighter sleeper than me, so I bet those hours from 10pm - midnight aren't really sleep.
The way our schedules overlap, we're getting three hours sleep a night.
My last day of school is Friday and finals end Wednesday, so that'll solve it for the short term. The house is clean, we're fed, the cat's petted (always a priority) and we're surviving but, man, something has to give.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 12:33 am (UTC)After spending years working in bakeries the best advice I can give you is to try to do as much as possible the night before: shower the night before; make lunch & even breakfast the night before; putting everything he'll need to take for the day in his bag, or the equivalent; if he drives, it could even go in the car the night before; even lay out the days clothing - I used to lay it out leading away from the bed in the order I would put it on as I stumbled past. Do what you can to cut that time down.
Naps are also good but it takes some people a while to train themselves to sleep productively in the afternoon. It seems strange to talk about productive sleep but you know what I mean, right?
If it comes to it, I recommend Valerian Root as a herbal sleep aid. It doesn't make you fall asleep & it doesn't make you harder to wake up so there's nothing to worry about in that regard. It just makes you drowsy. My mother's an insomniac so I have some idea what I'm talking about here but, of course, "Always seek proper advice. I'm not a doctor...blah blah blah"
I hope it helps.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-09 10:03 am (UTC)I tried going to bed early with him and sleep-wise that helped us both. I discovered that doing my homework in the morning instead of at night didn't work out nearly as well, (he's slow-moving in the morning, I'm merely fuzzy-headed). But maybe if I were getting up on that schedule more regularly....
Icarus