Dear Mr. Sandman...Seriously?!

A terrifying yet accurate portrayal of how I feel right now

I've never really been a great sleeper, its true.  Even when I was younger I was always an early riser.  The sleep overs of my teen years found my friends sleeping until noon and me in the other room reading an entire book.  Or me and my one other early riser friend making ourselves breakfast, reading an entire book, taking a walk, doing a little dance, and our other friends still not being awake.

It got a little better towards the end of high school.  My terrifying nightmares stopped (thanks crazy brain) and I was exercising a freakish amount (thanks water polo) and doing so many extracurriculars that I was so insanely physically exhausted I could always sleep.  I even took naps after school.  Oh Naps.  I wish I had that capability these days.

In college I learned to sleep like the dead.  I spent a good 6 years of my life living in residence halls and let me tell you what - when you live with anywhere from 150 - 500 18year olds who have just recently discovered their new found "freedom" you learn how to sleep.  Like sleep through a tsunami/hurricane simultaneous earthquake sleep.  

But my old age is setting in apparently.  And ever since moving out of the residence halls and learning to love the life outside (I LOVE IT!) and enjoying peace and quiet and a relatively normal schedule - I can't sleep.  A full, good night's sleep is really a rare commodity these days.  Yeah I probably get 5 hours of unadulterated sleep on a regular basis (which I know is really good for some people)  But 7 or 8 hours?  Of really deep good I feel rested in the morning sleep...almost never.  And on some nights, like this current one per say, I get about 0 hours of sleep.  Like I've been looking at the clock since 1:45am.  No joke.  And as I write this it is 4am.  And there has been no sleeping.  NO SLEEPING.

I don't know what to do.  Because I am tired.  Oh trust.  I'm tired.  And I exercise.  And I don't drink caffeine at night (and really rarely in general these days), and I try not to get to hyped up before bed, or read in bed or do anything you're not supposed to do to mess up your sleep cycle...and yet, I'm awake.  Again.

So, anybody got any suggestions.  I'm pretty game for anything these days short of needles in my eyeballs (wait...I might even try that)  Animal, vegetable, mineral.  I'm in.  Give me the goods people or find me a Sandman stat!

Yawn.