“My eye is twitching these last few days,” Donnie said to me last night. “You’re tired,” I began, “we’ve been out the last few nights so I’m exhausted too. Your eye is twitching, mine are sobbing. I’ve been so very sad today and I know it’s just because I’m tired.”
It is very hard to be tired. I am very in tune with how it disrupts my emotions and my energy and my mood and yet…there is usually not anything I can do about it. I try to go to be early most nights but we’ve had STUFF to do this week – and it takes me awhile to wind down for bed after we’ve been out and doing that STUFF, so I’ve been falling asleep closer to 10pm and still waking up before 5am and while I know that’s not a TERRIBLE sleep schedule for the average American…THE AVERAGE AMERICAN DOES NOT GET ENOUGH SLEEP.
I need a SOLID 8 hour of SOLID sleep. For every 30 minutes less, I’m function about 10% less. I get distracted easily when I’m tired, I don’t have energy, I’m quicker to jump down everyone’s throats or roll my eyes at benign slights from family members. Last night I way over-reacted to my daughter’s inability to put up her laundry. AND I KNOW IT IS BECAUSE I AM TIRED.
I got to sleep a little after 9pm last night and woke up a little before 6am so I’m feeling a LITTLE better but I plan on hitting the bed at 8pm ON THE DOT tonight and NO ONE CAN STOP ME.
I don’t work so you’d think I could nap, but y’all just don’t know what it’s like living with my dog. He is VERY loud and barks at the very slightest things and while he sleeps through the night quietly (THANK GOD) he is rarely quiet for more than 45 minutes at a time during the day. Once I was so desperate for a nap that I went and slept in Donnie’s jeep in the garage just to get away from the barking dog.
Let me repeat myself: I SLEPT IN MY HUSBAND’S CAR IN THE GARAGE BECAUSE I NEEDED A NAP SO BAD.
Here’s to hoping I’m less weepy and more focused today after a decent night’s sleep because IT WAS GETTING UGLY AROUND HERE, PEOPLE.
I don’t want to offer unsolicited advice and you may have already tried everything and nothing worked, but… I’m a dog trainer. Feel free to email or DM on Twitter (@soonjung) if you’d like to talk more about Zoomie’s sound reactivity. It doesn’t have to be “just how he is” and there are gentle, positive training methods that really do work. He may not ever be completely oblivious to outside sounds, but it can definitely be better than it is.