Sleep, and the lack thereof

I'm tired today. I've been having trouble sleeping lately, and it's finally caught up to me at work. You know it's bad when you have 2 cups of coffee and feel like it hasn't made a lick of difference.

Not sleeping well when you're an educator has fast and adverse effects. For example, when the morning bell rang, it barely registered with me that I had just 25 minutes to prepare for the day before my classes started coming in. Where the hell did the previous 20 minutes go? I had copies to make! Lessons to prepare! Coffee to drink! To say that I've felt behind all day is a classic understatement.

My last class was hell. Almost literal hell. 35 kids came in screaming and running and only a handful of them were prepared. Now, for a class of 9 and 10 year olds you sort of expect that energy and crazed example of life on speed right before lunch. But to see dozens of kids not even turn their heads when you start to speak really turns my stomach. I wasn't in the mood to fight it, so I worked with the kids who were ready to work and actually paying attention. I'm sure a few kids thought it was great, because they didn't HAVE to be working. But they'll probably wish they'd kept their mouths shut and ears open in a few weeks when the workers get rewarded and they have to stay in at recess and finish their assignments. Hey, that's not my fault! It's school policy, man.

Part of the reason I haven't been sleeping is that there's been a bit of 'turmoil' in my personal life. Turmoil is probably an exaggeraton; 'drama' is much more appropriate. See, I've got a few friends who are currently butting heads (to put it mildly) and I got caught in the middle of it. For a few days last week it was all I could think about for a few days and I was seriously distracted. Sleeping was difficult, and I slept pretty fiercly over the weekend. Sleeping it off helped, but on Monday night it seemed my difficulty sleeping (either falling asleep or just staying asleep, dammit) was back. Last night (Monday to Tuesday) I woke up THREE TIMES. That's like 6 times in teacher hours. I'm totally drained because of it, and it's hard to care when kids start bothering one another. On days like today, I figure that as long as no one leaves here bleeding from the head, they can bother each other and I really couldn't care one way or the other.

A helpful trick I've found is to have extra worksheets and projects on hand for days like today. Sometimes the kids need a break, and giving them something easy yet time-consuming is a good deal. You can spend a few minutes with one eye on them and one eye closed. Probably not the best strategy, but there isn't a teacher alive who won't nod knowingly when you say, "I just needed a few minutes...."

Aside from forcing yourself to get some more sleep, there are few ways to get past that feeling that makes you want to curl up into the fetal position and take a nap under your desk. I've found that a couple Tylenol PM or Unisom can work wonders if sleep is an issue for you but you don't want to become known as the teacher dependent on sleep aids. :-) Adjusting your body is tough. During the summer months I can stay awake as long as I darn well please and not think about it. But suddenly it's the night before the first day of school and I have no idea how to fall asleep before 2:00 a.m. and NO idea how to wake up before noon. Uh oh.

If anyone reading this has trouble sleeping or finds themselves in a classroom with 30 anxious pairs of eyes waiting to glean knowledge from your overstuffed brain, chill. Relax. Stressing about not sleeping, in my experiences, makes it worse. Take some unisom or another sleep aid, take a shower, and relax in bed. Try that for a week or two and see if your body takes over on its own. Your kids will rebound, and you'll find you're much more productive on a few good nights of sleep than one night of no sleep.