Sleep Schedule? What Sleep Schedule?

I really need to find a better way to deal with sleep this semester, or I am going to be bonkers by May. Last Semester my sleep schedule was far from normal (I was regularly staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning and then sleeping until noon) but at least it was REGULAR. My body got used to it and I felt great... sure, I was missing a lot of sunlight, but I was still getting SOME sunlight, and so all the chemicals were doing the right stuff. In general, I just considered myself to be on West Coast time. Could have gone all the way to LA and not had the least bit of Jet Lag. Bummer I didn't have any money for airfare.

Well, now here I am, with at least one night of every week (and sometimes two) being spent at the Hospital. I sleep with a duty pager that controls my life while I'm there, and when it goes off I have to call in. I am rarely actually needed, but I need to be available, and that alone makes sleeping a little more difficult, and so I end up staying all night.

As I said before that is not a problem in and of itself... I've been a night owl ever since I wrested control of my bedtimes from my parents. The problem is having to be up for class at the hospital the following morning, sometimes for all day seminars (like yesterdays opus on the computer charting system, there is a Chapsticks on Charting on its way.) that leave me wanting nothing when I get home so much as a nap.

Because of this my body has NO clue when sleepy time is. We have descended into "sleep when you can" mode which makes trying to keep any kind of schedule infuriating. Last night I couldn't get to sleep until 3 am... and slept in until 2 today, which leaves me with very little time to do anything but some small tweaks to the church website and this hasty blog entry before heading back in to the Hospital for tonight's shift.

"But Dan, couldn't you have maybe done some cleaning in your room and eaten lunch before going to duty night?"

No, voice of reason, I couldn't do all that, because there was more important stuff to do. N00b.