So, since Sunday night’s sleep was so sparse and awful, I decided I can’t go through another night like that, especially with traveling and everything for the wedding coming up so soon!

Monday morning I called my doctor and asked for help. We have a great relationship. She knows everything that’s going on. We had already talked about the possibility of a sleep med, so it wasn’t like she’s just willing to haphazardly write a prescription for anything I ask for at the drop of a hat. Now that that’s clear, she asked if I wanted Ambien which would require getting 7-8 hours of sleep or if I wanted something that worked for only about 6 hours or so.

I said I would commit to getting 7-8 hours, so bring on the Ambien. It really made no difference to me. I just thought I didn’t want to still be waking up in the middle of the night.

Their directions stressed how important it was to get the 7-8 hours, otherwise you could suffer potential memory loss. WHAT?!

Knowing I would be getting up at 7 Tuesday morning, I planned to be asleep before 11. So, about 9:30, I tried to start winding down, lowering lights, etc. 10:30 I started getting ready for bed. 10:45 took the Ambien. 10:48 already feeling the effects (dizziness). 10:50 called my mom back while in bed and had a strange conversation I couldn’t remember until she reminded me this afternoon.

Slept soundly until my alarm went off at 7:01. Snooze, snooze, snooze. 7:30 - 2nd loud obnoxious alarm across the room. Get up, shut it off, go back to bed, snooze, snooze.

8:00ish finally get up, get ready, go to work, thinking “I shouldn’t be driving.” Sent a couple emails I later had no memory of. While the snoozing is normal, this isn’t. Fell asleep on the way to Monterey (I wasn’t driving). Survived and stayed awake through a meeting and house showing and antiquing. Made it through lunch in Culver (I had amazing cinnamon roll French toast!) and decided I should get a coffee. I went through about 4 cups of coffee. On the way back to town, I feel asleep again. Deep sleep. NOT normal. In the car I’ll usually wake up as we slow down or stop. I slept all the way through slowing down in Lakeville and LaPaz, and before I knew it we were in downtown South Bend.

This afternoon I was contemplating plans for after work and running errands, completely forgetting about a 5:00 appointment that I have. Once it suddenly came back to memory, I set a reminder on my cell.

Ambien…oh dear. I don’t know which is worse – not being able to sleep at night or not being able to stay awake during the day.