This segment, scheduled for 18.5 actually took me 26.5 hours because of a major adventure high in the mountains of Wyoming and a Jeep trail on the Colorado/Wyoming border. My co-pilot was a trooper and we will write more after a long slumber.

Before I sign off, I’d like to thank the Academy, All Wheel Drive and most unexpectedly my acute insomnia.

It’s that time of the year again, the KJH (Kirkland Jr. High) magazine fundraising drive. Amy’s school does this the first month of every year to raise money for… well, something. It says it’s for the kids so it must be good. I always load up on these because I love the kids. Ok, well, I love magazines. They really are perfect for me since I have the attention span of a Brazilian Tapir…

Wait, what was I writing about? …

Oh, yeah, my attention span isn’t that great and the normal magazine article is about all I can handle. If my insomnia should strike (pretty rare, maybe 364 days per year), I can flick the light on, read a good article and hopefully think about something that will bore my brain enough to shut itself off.

Here’s what I ordered:

1) Backpacker
2) Fast Company
3) Forbes
4) Fortune
5) Mac Addict
6) Maximum PC
7) National Geogrpahic Adventure
8) Smithsonian
9) Wired
10) Teen People

Ok, just kidding about #10, they were sold out :(

Most if not all are renewals but off the list this year is Discover. Though I’m a science fiend, that magazine just bores the hell outta me for some reason.

(Ok, I wouldn’t wake up that much but that’s not the point of this post…)

Now that I have the insomnia problem artificially and (most likely) temporarily, I’ve been thinking a lot about my sleep cycle and wake time. Waking up feeling refreshed is not a matter of how much you sleep, It’s about waking up in the correct stage of your sleep cycle. Here’s a good article explaining sleep cycle in detail. In short, if you want to wake up feeling refreshed, the aXbo Sleep Phase Alarm Clock claims it can help.

To use it, simply put on the wireless wristband, set the time you need to wake up no matter what, and the aXbo alarm clock will attempt to detect the right time to wake you up, within a specified time window (e.g. 30 minutes).

The obvious advantage over similar products like SleepTracker, is that the alarm won’t get muffled when you tuck your hands under the pillow. The aXbo also runs on mains and/or batteries, eliminating the problem of the alarm running out of juice in the middle of the night. And as a bonus, the aXbo also comes with 3 sleep-inducing melodies which automatically stop when aXbo notices that you’re asleep. I’d like a little more detail about how the device detects your sleep cycle accurately (it can’t do that measuring pulse or blood pressure) but it sounds like a kick ass idea and something I’d be willing to try.

(via Engadget)

So the Lunesta seems to be working after all. Although I’m able to fall asleep, I’m having problems staying asleep. For evidentiary purposes, let’s take a quick look see at my latest sleep/awake times:

Friday night 8/19: Asleep by 2:30 am (stayed awake on purpose to sleep in on Saturday morning)
Saturday morning 8/20: awake by 7:19 am
Saturday night: none (moved SOL to the new datacenter)
Sunday morning: Fell asleep around 8:30 am
Sunday afternoon: Despite being awake for 25 hours, woke up around 11:50 am
Sunday night: Asleep by 10:45 pm
Monday morning: Awake by 6:10 am
Monday night: Asleep by midnight
Tuesday morning: Awake by 5:00 am when Amy got up to go to the gym
last night: Asleep by 8:30 pm
this morning: Awake by 1:50 am (came into work around 4 am)

I won’t sleep again until Friday night because we’re moving 13 critical servers tonight during the maintenance window.

So what gives? Stress? I don’t think so. 1) I’m not that susceptible to stress and 2) the hardest part was completed on Saturday. It’s just the instant I wake my mind is racing instead of the usual 1-3 hours it normally takes to ramp up to something resembling consciousness.

And just because I’m spending so much time at work does not mean that I’m being productive. I’m in such a daze that doing almost anything minor is nearly impossible to force myself to do. Little administrative tasks are piling up and will soon stretch 5/8 the of the way to the moon. I haven’t ridden in nearly 10 days and I’ve completely lost the desire to do so. I’m also pining for some alone time. Everyday is meeting after meeting after meeting and all I think about in them is just sleeping or vegging. I feel like Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys where he’s in the asylum staring up at the TV and just drooling. Just give me my Thorazine drip now, please.

I’m not a worrier. I don’t have insomnia caused by anxiety and I don’t spend my days thinking about things that could go wrong. So why am I struggling with the task my team has to complete this Saturday? Yes, It is the most complex thing this company has ever done since going into business but I’ve created a solid plan and have the best team I could ask for.

Maybe it’s because we have no viable backup or backout option. Or maybe it’s because I’m relying on a 3rd party (though properly vetted and extremely qualified) vendor to physically move the equipment. I can’t control nor ever worked with them. Or maybe it’s because I’m 0-5 in major project executions. Regardless of the reason, I’m still surprised that I’m not sleeping and have 24×7 butterflies. I wake up constantly during the night wondering if I’ve forgotten anything or if there might be a better way to do x task. I know that worrying and planning things to death not only don’t help but probably hurt and this activity is self defeating. Worrying about things is pretty stupid and I can’t stand to be around people who do.

This is probably a stupid rant caused by 6 hours of sleep in 5 days.

I lnow it will go fine and that’s why I’m so pissed at myself…