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Sleepless nights and classless days?
This is an extremely odd question for me to ask, but I'm getting a little desperate and a lot frustrated. And, sorry, my questions are always long.
I'm (almost) 21 f and graduating from college in may, provided I don't fail my classes because of poor attendance. I'm a very healthy person, aside from the occasional bout with Crohn's disease, which I'm forever medicated for.
Thing is, all of the medications I have to be on can cause insomnia, which I'm predisposed to. I've always had sleep problems, but these medications make it kind of ridiculous. As in, I don't get tired. At all. I can stay up for days on end and - well, not feel fine, but not feel tired. After one night of no sleep, I slur my words, mix up my sentences and have no center of balance. If I do manage to fall asleep, it's only for two hours at a time, and I ALWAYS have nightmares. Unless I take something to knock myself out.
After dealing with that for something like three years, trying every trick in the book to fall asleep and stay asleep, and quite a few over the counter medications (including Nyquil, Benadryl, Tylenol PM, Melatonin, and some other sleep aid that I can't remember the name of), I finally got one of my doctors to prescribe me Ambien. Yes, I'm aware that Ambien is easy to abuse and people become dependent on it, but that isn't a problem. I was only taking it every other night. I now take it every night, because I can't afford to not sleep every other night anymore. I'm a very active person, and very busy - I have two jobs, and they both require me to have a lot of energy (I work at a coffee shop, and I'm a hired soprano for a pretty well-known church choir around here) - and I need to be alive at both my jobs.
My problem is I have a 10am-12pm playwriting course at college, and attendance is very important, not to mention I love the professor, and this class is a lot of fun. I woke up today at 11:25. Class would have been over in 20 minutes, which is barely enough time for me to get there and find a parking space, let alone get dressed. I emailed my professor letting her know what happened, because I don't want her to think I'm slacking or that I don't care about the class. I also sent her the assignment that was due today, even though she really doesn't want things emailed to her (I don't blame her, we're working on full-length plays. Granted, mine's only ten pages so far, but still.)
Another issue is that my coffee shop job has me closing the store pretty much every Monday and Wednesday night (two nights I don't have classes). My boss discovered I'm good at closing, so now I close more than anyone else in the store. I don't get home until around midnight. If I went to bed right when I got home I'd get maybe eight hours of sleep, but since I have to shower (trust me, I HAVE to shower) and wind down, and wait for my sleeping pill to kick in, I don't get to bed until 1 or 2, and it's difficult to wake up six hours later for class. I can't tell him not to have me close those days because he just won't schedule me those days, and I need money. I live on my own and I have a kitty. She needs food.
I have to leave by 9:30 to get a parking space and get to class on time, which means I have to be up at 8:30 the latest. I don't even remember turning off my alarm this morning, and it was in another room, which means my sleeping pill was still kicked in. I guess it's just as well I didn't get up to go, if that's the case, because driving on Ambien - not such a good idea.
SO. At this point, it seems that my only solution to getting to class in the morning is to just not sleep Monday and Wednesday nights, which wouldn't be such a problem if I didn't have night classes Tuesdays and Thursdays.
But, given the fact that I do have night classes, I can't just sleep later. I know not sleeping is really unhealthy, and it makes me feel terrible, but I'm seriously considering it at this point.
I can't go to bed earlier, and I can't make myself get up, unless I train my cat to start jumping on me at 9am. She won't, though, I've tried. When I first got her, she used to start crying for food as soon as my alarm went off (she sleeps with me), but now she just curls up next to my head and purrs to wake me. She's a very nice alarm, but I wish she wasn't so relaxing sometimes.
Anyway.
Does anyone have some kind of solution for me? Something I haven't thought of? Any advice is welcome, except "You suck, slacker!" because it's just not true...
Thanks,
-Siren =(
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Maybe give some free advice about: School?
You say that you take medication for you illness? I don't know if you've already mentioned it, but could it be possible that they could be causing your sleepless nights? And you using Ambien to counter it could be having side effects?? I don't know exactly Siren, but I would have to take this up with your doctor and see what he says about it... again.
As for your work, I'm afraid that you'll to ease up on one, and considering that you need the money, I would suggest easing up on the choir as it won't really put the food on the table or in the kitty bowl. I think that being part of a well known choir should be the last of your concerns. And I get the feeling that you're doing far to much work for your body to cope with. You're juggling what seems to be a very difficult course with night courses and two jobs. I'm not surprised that you're having these tireless nights.
Another thought has occurred to me, another reason why people don't sleep well is because that they're stressed about something and they're kept awake by that stress. I've been stressed on may occasions and I've never managed to have a good nights sleep when I am. You may not be aware that you are stressed, but I'm guessing that it can be another factor in as to why you're having these sleepless nights.
I hope this helped,
triquetra
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