Blame It On The Moon

Last night I was desperate to go to sleep. I started at 10:30, but when I was still awake at 11:00 I pulled out a book to help bring on drowsiness. I put the book down at 11:45 only to toss and turn for almost three hours before I finally fell into a nightmare filled slumber.

Of course I can’t recall what I was dreaming about, just that they were so disturbing I kept waking up to get out of the story that had taken over my brain.

Usually I only have nightmares if I have eaten beef for dinner, but since I gave up red meat last year I can’t blame the nightmares on that. I hadn’t drunk much caffeine and certainly not later than two in the afternoon so that was not my issue.

I woke up at 7:45 and despite still being exhausted, coupled with no morning appointments, I could not go back to sleep.

I wander through my day, hoping that I was making myself tired enough for a big sleep tonight. As I was going through email after dinner I read a blurb in the Fast Forward report from the Boston Globe about the full moon and lack of sleep. Turns out that the night before a full moon many people have trouble sleeping. They take an extra 30 minutes to fall asleep on these almost full moon night. I wish I had only taken 30 minutes, instead of the four hours it took me last night, but at least I know the reason.

Now I am going to have to track the moon more closely and plan on taking a sleeping pill on those approaching full moons. I can’t take four hours tossing a turning even once a month.