Although, suddenly, a lot less cool than previously seemed.

It's still really cool! It's Yahoo that's less cool.

I'm listening to a radio documentary about sleep, and they are talking about an experiment where they put people in a dark room for 12 hours a day for a month, and how for the first week they all slept about 11 hours, but after they made up their sleep debt they went back to a more normal night's sleep. The participants talked of the crystal clear awakeness they felt once they rid themselves of their sleep dept and were getting all their required sleep. I can't imagine what crystal clear awakeness is. I always feel like I'm in a fog.

This. Last night I fell asleep by 11, which is a vast improvement from my patterns over the last week. However, since my alarm still goes off at 5:30, not enough. I have accumulated so much sleep debt that I am sincerely frightened about my commute. I have literally been finding myself barely able to keep my eyes open and even having moments of blurred vision when driving, lately, and I've had to resort to cranking music, opening windows, and singing out loud to manage to keep myself conscious. Not good when I've got 29 miles (about 45 minutes if traffic isn't too bad) to go every morning. Even coffee on the way doesn't seem to help. Obviously I need to get more sleep, but I also need to find something to use as a failsafe. Any suggestions?

I love the way I feel when I'm rested; mornings are actually pleasant and productive. I hate this fog. Being on an opposite work schedule from ND combined with my own natural night owl tendencies has been a dangerous (literally) combination. I think I'm posting this here to acknowledge that it is a real problem I need to fix. So long as I want to be a high school teacher at this school and live in Pasadena, going to bed much earlier is a must.

Although, suddenly, a lot less cool than previously seemed.

Yeah, that's where the hungry aliens will land first.

Hec, can I get UI while I'm teaching krav? It's a total pittance, so it'd be a shame. But I would ask them to stop paying me if it made a difference. Since it is such a pittance, and UI less so.

As Theo notes, it's the same in California. You just deduct your Krav pittance from the the unemployment you'd get that week. However, it just winds up extending your unemployment benefit, so it's not actually counter productive financially. There's a set amount of money you're entitled to and whatever you earn in krav only affects your bi-weekly check. Not the total amount you can get.

Beth wound up extending her UI over the course of a year by temp jobs. You can do that too.

Before I had children, I was one of those crystal clear awake people, because I often got 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night. I really like to sleep. Give it a try, people who lack late-night responsibilities! Or, if you really want to stay up late, please come to my house and chat with my daughter about the plot of Monsters, Inc. for half an hour at 3am, so I can sleep.

It's bad for me, because I'm pretty much a textbook night owl. Most of the day when I'm supposed to be a productive worker, I'm wondering why I'm awake, and when I should be going to bed is when I really start to feel like getting things done. So I blame The Man and his 9-5 slavery for my constant unalertness.

I've been working these hours for almost 8 years in a row, and it's not gotten any better.

With this job it feels like I'm moving around for my entire shift, which is just as exhausting as sitting at your desk working for your entire shift. And by the time I get home, all I want to do (if I'm not going out) is catch up on the 'net and tv before I have to go to bed by midnight to do it all over again. This sucks!

Don't cancel the gym membership. You'll be able to make it work, and you'll need it while you are job hunting.

Raq is wise.

ita, I'm so sorry this happened...what a jolt.

Given what seems obvious about your skill and consientiousness, I have this tremendously strong sense that everything is going to work out much more quickly than you might imagine. And for the better.

On some level, I believe the Universe whispers and then it screams...until we pay attention. That terrible pain in your head seemed like a Banshee trying to tell you something.

May the next phase of your worklife be interesting in only good ways!

I looove sleeping as well, and do a pretty good job of keeping up on my sleep. I'm not sure if sleep dep affects me so much because I do generally get enough sleep, or if I generally make sure I get enough sleep because it affects me so much! Upshot is, I'd like to go to bed at 9 tonight.

Nilly - insent.