Ah… sleep, that tease, that tormentor. Clearly, sleep and I do not have a close relationship!
1. What keeps you up at night?
I mean, really, what doesn’t? On bad nights… nightmares, morbid thoughts, deep thoughts on my own humanity, the clock ticking… the usual dark and morbid things. On good nights… a good book, plotting and brainstorming whatever I’m writing. I really do my best creative thinking right before bed. I run through what I’ve been writing, and the thoughts just come. If anyone ever looked at my calendar app the next day, they’d think I was writing in code about some nefarious activity. Nope, just notes on plot changes, additions, ideas.
2. How well do you operate on insufficient sleep?
I’d say pretty well. I’ve been doing it for years. I’ve never been a big sleeper, but it’s my husband’s sleep issues that gave me sleep issues. He has sleep apnea, and the first several years of it was a struggle. Pre-diagnosis, his sleep gradually became less restful… and that translated to sleep aggression. He’d inadvertantly punch me, gouge me with his fingernails, shove me. It was bad. He got diagnosed, and it was still several years before he found a mask that worked for him. We were in NY then, and except when he was deployed, I slept on the couch. Then we moved to AZ, and I had a small bed in my office, so I slept there for the better part of another four years. It wasn’t until we moved to Hawai’i six years ago that it finally leveled out.
3. Under what conditions do you get your best sleep?
An alternate reality? Drugged to the gills?
4. What unusual places have you slept in?
I’ve slept on helos, in cattle trucks, stretched out on the ground with a rucksack as a pillow. During the ice storm in NY years ago, I slept on the conference table in my dad’s legal office for a few nights. When my grandfather was in the hospital, I shared a hotel room with my grandmother. Her snoring was so bad that I dragged the pillows and blankets off the bed and retreated to the bathtub. Even that was more restful!
5. What’s a good song about dreams or dreaming?
How about 5?
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