You're Getting Sleeeeeepy!

Part of the schedule I keep involves, of course, sleep. I'll go through an average week for ya, then you tell me if it's normal, fair enough? Sunday, being my only "real" day off, is usually filled with catching up on stuff I haven't got around to during the week, again, because of my schedule. And, this time of year, add mowing the lawn to the list. Of course, if it's Father's Day (yesterday) or if it's rained in the recent past, then you can kiss that one goodbye. So, I putz around, and try to get stuff done, as much as I can. After dinner, about 7:30 - 8:00pm, I start to get REALLY sleepy. So, after watching "Ice Road Truckers," I'm done, off to bed (9:00). I sleep a few hours, and I'm up Monday am about 2-2:30. On the computer all night, in the morning, run around and do errands, get ready to go out Monday night. I usually hit the sack about 2-3:00pm, and sleep till 9:00 or so. Get ready, and make it over to work by 10:30 or thereabouts. My Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday route takes me until about 6:30-7:00am, and I'm done for the day. Then comes the tricky part: trying to sleep in the damn truck!
I can't remember how long this has been going on, or if I have EVER slept in the truck, but I JUST CAN'T DO IT! I don't know why; I've tried pills, potions, herbal supplements, you name it (almost). No luck; in the 12-14hrs I spend in the berth, I'm lucky if I can manage 1-2 hours of sleep. That's it. So, needless to say, when I "wake up," I'm groggy as hell, just draggin' ass.
Once I get to my first store, and I'm actually moving around and working, I'm ok, but the coffe and other (legal) chemical stimulants need to be working. Of course, I've already spoken about truckstop coffee previously, so no more; beggars can't be choosers. I've found that, as daylight breaks, I get a little bit of a "second wind," but still, when you think about it, it's pretty dangerous having me out there in my condition. Get home Wednesday, and I sleep from noon till midnite? I mean, it's insane, really. Then, up all night on the computer. So Wed. is a wasted day. Thursday is a repeat of Monday, basically, except I don't have to start as early, so I can go to bed an hour later, if I choose (about 3:00pm). Then I repeat the process; get done with work on Friday, off to the truckstop, where I pop my pills & eat, then try to rest. Sam story for Friday night; go to work, get done about 7-7:30 Saturday morning, go home and collapse. For some reason, I don't sleep as long on Saturdays as I do on Wednesdays. So, I get up at 2 in the afternoon, watch sports on TV (I'm useless for anything else), eat dinner, crash, and up all night again. It's not a fun schedule, but I can't really do much about it.
I've talked to other drivers, some who have the same problem, most don't. One guy summed it up perfectly "It's not home..." Same holds true for a motel, which I rarely do anymore. Can't sleep there, either, because it's just not home. Well, I might have to resort to one final trick (and this leads up to my next post): drinking. Yeah maybe a couple of beers will do the trick. Hell, I've tried everything else...

More soon,

Steve