Stress

People handle stress in many different ways. I've always been the type of person that gets stressed out, heavily, for a minute or so (ok, maybe up to a few hours or so) and then it goes away. It's usually a "HERE IT IS!! STRESS!!" kind of moment, then I get over it, or deal with it and it goes away.

Or so I thought.

I've been having problems sleeping for the last few months, and this is something that is very uncharacteristic of me. I have always had the problem of not being able to fall asleep quickly, usually taking up to an hour or so to fall asleep. Yet, once I am asleep, I'm there, I'm out...until morning or until it's time to wake up.

I noticed tonight, meaning I'm actually thinking about it...that I haven't had a full night of interrupted sleep in over four months. I always wake up about 1-2 hours after initially falling asleep (which still takes up to an hour) and then I wake up an additional 3-4 times every night.

I see my clock every night:

12:30 am

2:46 am

4:15 am

5:55 am

6:30 am

8:15 am

Until I finally get out of bed.

The only time I DON'T see this are the nights where I fall into bed in a drunken stupor, which I will admit, is not as often as some people seem to think it is and that is not the answer to my problem that I'm looking for.

I will be seeing my doctor tomorrow and will talk to him about it, but I'm fearful of sleeping pills as I already have an addictive personality by my nature, so I'm scared of taking them to sleep, then really getting addicted to them.

So I started thinking of what could be causing it and I've come to 2 conclusions, one of which I don't think is it so I'm disallowing it, but would like to hear what others think.

1. Iced Tea - Caffeinated (sp?) I drink about 1/2-1 gallon of iced tea a day. While others would say, "Oh yeah, that's it, too much caffeine!" I have to beg to differ because I've been drinking this much tea for over 8 years. Unless there is some magical 'build up' of caffeine that happens, then I can't see this being the answer as my sleep patters have only changed in the last 4-5 months.

2. Stress - While I feel I handle stress well, and I don't feel stress when I go to sleep, perhaps my subconscience is trying to tell me otherwise? I do believe stress is something that CAN build up, unlike caffeine (IMO), so I find this to most likely be the answer.

Ah well...we'll see what the good old Doc says tomorrow.

In the meantime..um, good night??