To sleep, perchance to dream

I haven't been sleeping well lately. Some of it is the cats' fault for pinning me to the bed or for deciding to rid themselves of furballs in the middle of the night (new carpet, remember?). Some of it is due to being the unfortunate possessor of one of the world's smallest bladders. Some of it is due to incredible hotflashes that wake me up drenched in cold sweat. Some of it is just the inability to find a comfortable sleeping position - the discomfort, dare I say pain, wakes me up multiple times during the night, and I have to change my position. None of this makes for great amounts of sleep. Inevitably, the alarm goes off in the middle of a dream and I spend the next hour hitting the snooze button and trying to swim up from oblivion.

I begin taking in my daily allotment of leaded coffee before taking my shower and while driving to work. Once at work, I fix a fresh pot of unleaded and drink that for the rest of the day. All this means that I am taking one-third to one-half of the caffeine that I used to consume. It doesn't seem to help my sleep any. I've also tried ibuprofen and a half glass of red wine (no, not on the same evenings!). They don't seem to help either. Guess it's time to return to my insomnia formula: a tea made of equal parts of chamomile, catnip and valerian root with a teaspoon of honey. Valerian root is nasty without the sweetener. Better pick up some human-grade catnip for that - the cats will rebel if I steal some of theirs!