one more from nebraska

I have a sleeping problem. Normally, I sleep just fine, but whenever I know I need to get a lot of sleep, I can't. I usually get about three hours of sleep before our first few speech meets, even though I go to bed by 10 or earlier . . . it's just something about knowing that I'll need to get up at 5 that keeps me from getting to sleep. (After about three weeks of speech, fatigue sets in, and I have no trouble sleeping!)

At 8 p.m., we'll leave for a 24-hour trip to Florida. I'm one of the drivers. As I don't sleep very well in cars, I knew that I needed to get a lot of sleep leading up to the trip. It didn't happen. Last night was my last chance. I packed until 11:30, then went to bed. And tossed. And turned. Adjusted my fan. Covered up the numbers on my alarm clock. Finally, I fell asleep. At 4:20, I woke to a strange grinding noise. It was my air conditioner rapidly turning off and on. Then it just turned off . . . I'd lost power. The power was off for 15 minutes--it's amazing how quickly my apartment became stuffy! Once the power came back on, I was awake. So I went through the whole toss-and-turn thing again. And when I did sleep, it wasn't very soundly. Needless to say, I feel like I've been run over by a train. And just sitting here at my desk during my lunch break, I'm about to go to sleep. I'll be taking most of the afternoon off to hopefully take a nap--'cause if I had to drive right now? We'd all be in trouble!

UPDATE: I left work at 1:30 and got in a wonderful 1 1/2 hour nap! I feel like a new person, and I'm ready to get on the road!