Am I an Alien?

The day for me started at 1:30p.m. I didn't go to bed until almost 10a.m. My sleep patterns are so different from everyone else's. I have been this way since 7th and 8th grade. I am definitely a night owl. I prefer, when I worked full-time outside the home, to work 2nd or graveyard shifts. I could come home at 6:00 or 7:00a.m. and go right to sleep. I am up all night. Sometimes I read novels or do jigsaw puzzles. I just can't get to sleep. When I finally go to bed I go to sleep the minute my head hits the pillow.

One thing I miss about sleeping this way is the wonderful weather when we have it. I lose a lot of sunlight. I prefer to go to bed between 3:00 and 4:00a.m. and get up about 8:00 or 9:00a.m., but that doesn't always work; especially if I am working on my newsletter, blog, or website. I have been known to be up 48, 52, and 36 hours at a time with only 3 to 5 hours sleep in between. This is just a fact of my life.

I have gone to several sleep doctors. We have tried all the techniques and tools to no avail. Well, that isn't all together true. When I am in a situation that requires me to go to bed earlier and get up earlier, I do. However, I can only maintain that for 3 to 4 days. Then it is right back to my normal routine.

Scheduling appointments is difficult. I try to get everything done in an afternoon or early evening depending on the need. I just hate it when I have to go for blood work or a procedure at the hospital. You want me there, WHEN? You HAVE to be kidding! But I get there.

Sometimes my husband and I are like two ships passing in the night. He is an early riser. He is getting up and making his coffee as I am shutting down my computer or closing my book and heading up the stairs for bed. I do my thing when he is sleeping. He does his when I am sleeping. We do get to meet in the middle after I awake. It works for us. We have been married 27 years.

My sleep pattern seems to really bother other people though. They keep telling me I have my night and days mixed up. For 46 years? I think not. I believe I am just one of those people who don't fit into society's standards: in a lot of ways. Sometimes I have even joked that maybe I am an alien (from Outer Space). Which raises other inconsistencies in my life.

When I had my appendix out at the age of 17 the doctor told me that he had never seen an appendix like that one. He said it was triangle shaped instead of looking like a worm. He also said that the color was not the right color. I can't remember if it was suppose to be white and mine was grey, or the other way around.

The arteries in my arms don't meet at the inside of the elbow as they do in other people. They meet half way between the inside of my elbow and my shoulder.

I had a foot doctor take pictures of my feet because he said he had never seen toes like mine before. They look like mom's, so what is the big deal?

There are many more things that I am different from most people. I have accepted it as part of life. I am "Uneek"!

Til Next Time!

©2008, L. Sue Durkin