Spring forward, stay in bed

We spring forward and lose an hour of sleep tonight. I typically hate this day for its lost hour. Insomnia doesn't happen as often these days, but every morning still brings exhaustion, so every hour is precious. But this year, I am actually looking forward to losing the hour

I have tried multiple things to try to get a good night's sleep, and one habit that seemed to help for a while was to get up at roughly the same time each morning. Since I don't wake easily or on my own, that meant an alarm every morning, 365 days a year.

Years ago, my alarm clock was like an air raid siren. It would rattle the house, but I wouldn't hear it go off next to my head. Then there was the battle with the snooze alarm, giving myself an extra ten minutes with each smack of the hand. At some point I set the clock fast so I would scare myself awake and out of bed, but eventually I could do the groggy math in my head and it no longer worked.

At some point I made up my mind to stop using the snooze button. Even though I fell asleep between every ten minute interval, it wasn't the best sleep. I eventually decided to just get up when the alarm went off so I could get that extra, uninterrupted half hour. But I still need the alarm to jolt me awake.

No more.

Now I have an old, fidgety dog to wake me up every morning. I still set the alarm, but I am rarely around when it goes off. I could force her back to bed I suppose, but even though I am exhausted, I find it much more difficult to fall back asleep lately. It might be age, stress or some other new factor, but once I am pulled out of deep sleep, the best I can do is hover in that frustrating non-sleep limbo as she clicks back and forth across the floor.

After we set our clocks ahead an hour, sunrise will come after seven o'clock, instead of just past six. I am hoping that the extra hour before the world begins to brighten will keep Sierra from tap-tap-tapping on the floor so early.

A guy can dream.