I kind of have insomnia, but not really.

It takes a long time at night before I start feeling sleepy and ready to go to bed. 

I often stay up until 1 or 2 a.m. and sometimes, even then, it takes a bit for me to fall asleep. 

However, once I fall asleep – I am gone. 

Once I’m asleep, I’ll sleep for as long as you let me. 

Since I work afternoons, this works out okay for me.  I almost always get at least 7-8 hours of sleep. 

The problem happens when I have to get up early.  Like while I’m getting my radiation treatments – which are all at 8 a.m. or thereabouts. 

Since my treatments are at a Kaiser facility that is literally across town, I need to give myself plenty of time to get there.  And 8 a.m. is prime rush-hour traffic time.  Plus, I have to actually get up, take a shower, eat my oatmeal (I have oatmeal every weekday morning) and (hopefully) a cup of coffee before I head out. 

That means I pretty much need to get my fat old lady ass out of bed by 6 a.m. 

There was a time when I could go out to the bar until 2 a.m., go get some breakfast, catch a couple hours of sleep and be ready to work a full day. 

Yeah.  Those days are long gone. 

So insomnia is defined by the Mayo Clinic as:

Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep, hard to stay asleep, or cause you to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep.

So, technically, I have insomnia but because of my personal schedule I am usually able to avoid the consequences. 

The next 3 weeks should be very interesting, if not downright frightening.

If you should see me, I strongly urge you to avoid me, unless you have a cup of coffee in your hand and are willing to share.