What will it take?

This was another busy week, yet I still didn't sleep much. I'm averaging about five hours per night, and I don't care what you say, that is not enough. If you don't believe me, just check in with the National Sleep Foundation on the issue of sleep deficit.

A couple of days ago, I took all of my prescription bottles out of the cabinet and lined them up on the kitchen counter. I read each label and took note of the side-effects posted on each bottle. I take eight prescription medications right now, and five of them are prominentlly labeled with a warning indicating: This drug causes drowsiness.

You could have fooled me.

There's definitely a difference between feeling drowsy and being tired. I'm always tired, but usually wired, as well.

When I saw the "very special" physical therapist this week, she told me I needed to work on focused relaxation (more on this later). When I laughed, she asked why that was funny, and I explained that not only can't I "clear my head," but even when I only sleep a few hours, my brain is firing so intensely, I wake up making to-do lists.

If three anti-convulsants, a sleeping pill, and an anti-histamine--all taken together--don't make me catatonic, it makes me wonder...What the hell would be going on in my cranium without these medications. They are, after all, intended to slow down my neurotransmitter traffic, and bring the rest of me down a few notches, as well. My brain reminds me of an episode of Gilligan's Island when Mrs. Howell was eating radioactive sugar beets...