My sleep is precious to me, so it’s still incredible to recall that I once had a part-time job as an overnight security guard. Let me tell you, I may only be five feet tall, but I was intimidating to my fellow university students, who, if they had any thoughts of breaking and entering or causing mayhem, quaked in terror at the thought when I walked by with my radio and heavy flashlight.
Once a week, I would prowl the dark and silent campus (dark and silent unless it was welcome night and the campus bar was selling beer for 25 cents). After that, I would go home, catch a half hour of sleep, before returning to the school for my day’s classes in which I would catch up more on my sleep. It was a pretty brutal time.
According to a CBC report, 3.3 million Canadians age 15 or older have problems getting enough sleep (i.e. less than five hours a night), potentially putting their health and quality of life at risk. Chronic sleeplessness can hurt the immune system and can make you more susceptible to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity and depression – along with just making you more cranky in general.
When I was an overnight security guard, I dreamed of the time I would live better than a poor college student’s life, not having to work overnight and carry packets of ketchup from a fast-food joint home rather than buying a bottle. Although I can now afford to buy a bottle of ketchup, I can say the sleep situation hasn’t gotten a lot better – and I can’t predict a time when things will be any different. Both my husband and I regularly disturb each other’s sleep, me with talking and fidgeting, and him by snoring (which makes me think those couples that love one another but sleep in different rooms may be on to something).
My daughter regularly enacts my husband’s snoring at the table, saying, “Daddy says, ‘Zzzz’ – and mommy says, ‘Ssshhh!’” Thank God she hasn’t picked up on the worse things I say when the buzz-saw noise wakes me up in the middle of my deep slumber.
That said, my daughter took her own vindictive turn at keeping me up last night. Even though she’s only two-years-old, she has become obsessed with school, and came into my room at 4 a.m. with her backpack and some books, saying, “It’s time to go on the school bus. I need to go to school now.” I pulled her into bed but she proceeded to chatter on for the next two hours undaunted. When we both finally dozed off, we were awakened by a cat crawling on us.
It’s a predicament - if you don’t leave the bedroom door open, the cats yowl or chase paper or other loose ends around the floors. If you do leave the door open, they walk all over your inert body and you wake up to fishy breath and whiskers nuzzling your face.
Just when I was settling down, my husband’s alarm rang, signifying the start to the day. But it’s not quite that simple – he’s a lover of the snooze button, so the annoying beep, beep, beep is switched off only to have it go off again eight minutes later. Ah, sweet sleep – then beep, beep, beep again. This goes on for the next 30 minutes while my heart weeps. I really think they should put a limit of two snoozes on an alarm – either that, or provide a sledgehammer along with each alarm purchase.
But all of this tossing and turning, insomnia, and my memories of being an overnight security guard make me think warm thoughts about those who stay awake at night on a regular basis. There are public works crews cleaning our roads, doctors and nurses tending to the sick, volunteer firefighters who get up to answer the call of duty and save houses and lives etc. all in the wee hours of the night while the rest of us slumber.
Thank you all for providing such a great service and sacrificing that precious thing we call sleep to help the rest of us. I’d sing more of your praises, but my pillow beckons and I have a date with a sledgehammer and an alarm clock.
