Saturday, May 14, 2005

Let’s start this right

“Which side of the bed did you wake up on!?” A phrase that’s often thrown at me always has me yelling back “The usual one! What’s that got to do with it?” In my calmer moments though I often wonder why we sometimes wake up fresh and dewy, ready to face the world and beat the blues, whereas on other days, literally wishing we were dead. Where from does the grouchiness come? I think we can safely eliminate lack of sufficient sleep, constipation and uncomfortable sleep posture as reasons. I usually manage my 8 hours and more, my digestive system is made of iron according to many and if bad posture was the reason, the hubby should be grouchy every morning (See I am a diagonal sleeper and the man needs to either occupy one of the resulting triangles or sleep underneath me. Poor bloke. I will have to make it up to him after writing this. I will let him change the OS of my computer, again, just for kicks. Yet again. Once more. *I do hope the undercurrents are coming though here* While talking about sleep posture, I have to tell you that we did try to sleep like normal people, you know, side by side, arms draped lovingly over each-other and all that. And it seemed to be working. Till I was woken up in the middle of the night by a hard bony elbow making high-speed contact with my soft dreaming eye. I woke up to stars though we were of course indoors. He was stretching in his sleep. Who stretches in their sleep? Well I think I have seen babies do it, and cats too, but I was only just informed that it’s prevalent among adults. What a way to find out! I think I am the only person to have got a black eye while sleeping. I choked back the tears while he started crying out if I was OK. Yes that’s another problem, HE cries out when I’m supposed to be doing it. Sometimes, when he catches me waxing, I have to deal with him going “Owwww” every time I pull that strip. Hey, this is my moment to yelp, not yours! O well, needless to say we abandoned the side-by-side sleeping method and went right back to however-you-wish, watch-out-for-your-own-delicates, any-which-way random heaped structure. Now it's really time to get back to the outside of this parenthesis).

So what can it be that decides our mood even before we are fully awake? There are obvious ones like when in those 5 minutes after the alarm goes off and you’re shutting your eyes tight and willing time reverse itself, you recall it is Monday and the week stretches out like a never-ending escalator in your mind’s eye. But sometimes it’s not so obvious. Is it the dreams we see? They say we don’t remember all our dreams so maybe some nights we have these really bad ones which leave us all grouchy but we don’t remember them. Is it the nature of those 8 hours of sleep? My best friend Google told me that the REM phase should not last more than a certain number of hours too. Several cycles of short REM phases are supposed to be the most refreshing. Or is it the way we are woken up? I remember when we were visiting our grandparents in their villages growing up, the children were all banished to the terrace to sleep and the alarm clock there would be the relentless BRIGHT sunlight and house flies hovering all around our faces. See that can set you in a bad mood right away! Maybe, it is the very last thought in your mind before you fall asleep that dictates the mood you wake up in. In any case, think happy thoughts, hopefully that will decide the nature of your dreams and subsequently take care of the morning smiles. Good Morning Everybody!! Let’s Have Us a Great Weekend!

47 Comments:

Blogger Krish said...

Gabby, good weekend to you too. Even better weekend to you after your reading my latest post (boy, I do take pains to place you at a special place in my post when referencing you :-))

6:46 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"high-speed contact", "Owwww" while waxing..FUNNY!!! :)

You took care of my Saturday smiles!

-Peggy

8:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good Morning Gabby!!!! :) yeah it is a lovely morning..:) I have a headache this morning ..:(

8:43 AM  
Blogger anantha said...

Gabby: Your posts have seriously started reminding me of the Seinfeld monologues! :D

You have a nice weekend too!

9:14 AM  
Blogger Rhyncus said...

Another exceptional source of grouchy mornings can be hangovers, as I found out to my detriment today. Not very good to be starting the weekend with a hangover.

9:59 AM  
Blogger Suhail said...

Seriositly sleeping..err...speaking..all that (inside the paranthesis) was muchos..muchos better :)

Ok, I hv read something abt REM earlier, but never figured out this dilemma of mine:
Many times when my alarm goes off (esplly if its earlier than 7am), I can hear the alarm, but I feel as if I am hearing same sound in my dreams. I kid not. It exactly matches with some ethereal scenes frm my dreams - that sequence is not worth remembering & I always forget it - but almost always I know I hear that irritating alarm sound as part of the dream. Best part is this : when I wake up..I feel that in my dreams I was helpless (how can one feel helpless in dreams is altogether another topic) in turning off that sound, coz u see for asleep me, it isn't the alarm, but some sound in dreams. Any explanations to it ? Once in a while this same thing also happens with mom-making-tea-dad-reading-newspaper conversation. It gets more funny here. How can a real-world conversation coincide with my dream sequence ? Whenever I've told this to my friends, they love to disbelieve it and dismiss it as yet-another-blaaah (I hv earned this reputation to surprise everyone). I don't blame them though. I myself have a hard time believing that I experience such supernatural hifi fundaas. Poor me :( But I enjoy it. Makes me feel exclusive like that boy from SixthSense.("I can hear *live* people & alarms, all the time, in my dreams.. hahaha")

In this land of what-not-medical-research and crazy studies, if someone is willing to do a (DiscoveryChannel-style)test on me with all those probes sticking around my eyes, eyelids, eyebrows, I am all for it. (Plus, I wouldn't mind a few hundred bucks on the side for sleeping on TeeVee :D, vot say ?) Given yr popularity, I'm sure u can put me in touch with some out-of-job-whitecoats.

2:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gabby, the ( ) stuff is HILARIOUS

4:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Diagonal sleeper !!! How does that happen ?! How do you know you are diagonal when you are sleeping?

5:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Poor Mr.Gabby! Hey I'm a diagonal sleeper too. Sometime I wake up with my head at the foot of the bed!??!

Have a good weekend all!

Shobha

7:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I know the feeling of waking up in the morning on the terrace. It's pretty cold and wet. Dew I think.

Nice spontaneous(I think??) post!

passer-by

8:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's passer-by again,
LOL @ watch-out-for-your-own-delicates! :)

8:23 PM  
Blogger AmitL said...

Hi,Gabby,u have a great weekend too.:)And,LOL at the descriptions of the sleeping positions.Finally,I think it's the position u're comfy in that becomes the right one.As for ur best friend Google(congrats,mine too)...perhaps I'll try a 15 minute cycle of short REM phases in the afternoon,to feel refreshed.BTW,in my opinion,it's the time period of sleep that makes all the difference.For me,it's a full 8 hours,which makes me wake up in a yabbadabbadoo mood.:)Cheers.Anything less and I'm irritable..anything more,ditto.:)

8:36 PM  
Blogger Argentyne said...

Whenver i've woken up with a bad mood ... its because I woke up too early :D

11:35 PM  
Blogger KJ said...

Good Morning Gabby,

u have a nice weekend.
BTW our weekend is over on thu- fri as in the Gulf countries & we have three days more to go till the next weekend. I will look forward to that one.

Amen.

1:10 AM  
Blogger Peg said...

Ah, sleep! And then some! I love to sleep alone, but hubby doesn't like the couch! ;-) Say no more, Peg! ;-) ;-)

3:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heh heh! I stretch in my sleep. I sleep alone though. Still.

The one on Mr.Gabby's side

7:09 AM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

thennavan - I have mixedfeelings on being the VERY LAST one in your story?!! Convince me it's a special place!

Peggy - thanks sweetie!

Rhyncus, sqrl/nt - Been drinking again? Did ya'll have fun? If you did, then the headache is just karma playing it's role. Just deal. :)

sb - Aiyoo! That can suck. Sometimes they expect you to keep talking even after you GENTLY remind them LOL!

Suhail - A special comment for you coming up!

Anon1 - Thanks!

Zoheb - I have been told. Again and again. :) Actually I start going diagonal (feet stretching to other end of the foot of the bed) about 15 mins after going to bed itself..! All these weird things are more obvious after you have to share the bed. I used to think I was the most graceful sleeper!

Shobha - You are my soul sister gal!

passer-by - The DEW!! Yes of course. Another big PIA...but falling asleep counting stars quite makes up for it no? & thanks!

Amitl - Try a couple more. Dubai mein seistas are popular I hear!

Coolcat - Yes a non-morning-person being forced to be a morning-person can result in very unproductive mornings!

kj - you lucky bums! So you're half way there already. Well have a good one! :)

Peg - Ahh, but that's in your hands non? :) Get your hubby hooked to blogs :)

Anon2 - I'm on Mr.Gabby's side too you know, he doesn't sleep alone after all...

7:35 AM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Suhail bhai - This is weird but exciting. I have these deja-vu-ish experiences myself. I sometime feel I'm watching myself sleep too...that's crazy no?...Ah, we really need to get to the bottom of this. I don't hear stuff though, so looks like you're more evolved there :)

The alarm though is just the alarm buddy. You are still asleep so the alarms seem like they're in your dreams but they're probably not...

I know of only two docs who read my blog and if you check out their blogs you'll see they are HARDLY out of work. But I will keep my eyes open for you! :)

7:44 AM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Anti - Thank you, thank you, thank you. If I remind you of Seinfield (not because I wear sneakers or some such thing!) I'm totally delighted! :)

(See, special comment for you. You were thinking I forgot about you again right? HA!!)

7:47 AM  
Blogger Suhail said...

wooo..this is sppooky! Do you think we should call up Reader's Digest or NewScientist.com ? After all that's how research gets done. One or two sample cases like us, can make for a good cover story. I also have some more crazy dreams experience...but no point mentioning here. coz ppl wud think I am blaahfing, and it would be going 'diagonally' OT to all other intrsting comments here. We need to talk. Coming soon to an Inbox near you.

10:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOL! And ummm... there are people who are diagonal sleepers and they not only stretch but also kick in their sleep! (alrite stop starin at me people!) ;)

And my granparents were the kind who wud prefer kids sleeping all day long ... drug them if need be.. anything to keep them from riotin in the house! :)

- garfy

10:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey... till now I was a silent reader and now I open my gab :) It was a lovely post and the () was funny, I'm a diagonal sleeper too :)

1:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My theory is that sometimes you have to be in a bad mood, a funk is just part of the normal oscillations. This is what chocolate and trashy books are for....

2:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does Mr.Gabby snore? That would be one way of getting some sympathy (general support is extended more towards him than you I observe)

5:46 PM  
Blogger Vee Cee said...

See I am a diagonal sleeper and the man needs to either occupy one of the resulting triangles or sleep underneath me
SANK (Smiling And Nodding Knowingly).

Being a 5'10"-er myself (I really am 5'10" and not 5'6" :)) and being forced to fit into one of those triangles, I can totally empathize with Mr. Gabby.
On some days, Mrs. VC forms a triangle on her own and moi has to fit into a underlined M - basically, a rectangle minus a triangle. (use your imagination & geometry fundas).

Keep on writing Gabby.

6:15 PM  
Blogger phatichar said...

hehehe.. :) i know about the 'sleep as you damn well please' stance. we'd get up in the morning looking like wrestlers in the dussera festival :))), but now my daughter is literally bridging the gap. she is a perpendicular sleeper...so if anyone were to peep at our bedroom at midnight, you'd see a life-size 'H' !! :))

10:49 PM  
Blogger Pallavi said...

hahah I had one friend who used to move around the bed while sleeping.. poor you.. but I am sure you must be adapting well.. LOLOL

11:15 PM  
Blogger Sudipta Chatterjee said...

I sleep on my face, 100%, and never find too many distractions until someone shouts at me. A very interesting discussion about dreams and what all happen in there to people is here.

And for the dead-drunk sleepers like me, it hardly matters even if the mattress caught fire at the edge by contact with a mosquito-coil. Yeah, that happened to me about a couple of years back and the other person in the room woke up due to the smoke and roused me. :)) Guess I sleep too well!

12:56 AM  
Blogger Twilight Fairy said...

i also wrote a 'rude awakening' post like that once.. n man - diagonal sleepers'.. my sis is one.. she's even a "football player in sleep" and what not! :)

PS. left comments on previous post coz I came to ur blog when that was latest.. but cd comment only today :p

3:25 AM  
Blogger manuscrypts said...

just u and him and the stars.. how romantic..:p

3:34 AM  
Blogger Rhyncus said...

No. I've grown up from the times when I believed a hangover was karma for the excesses of the past evening. Responsible drinking for me now means drinking 1.5ltrs of water before going to sleep and then waking up happy and lazy. But sometimes when you are too drunk to bother about the water....
And that watching yourself sleep is (I've heard) a reaction towards tiredness. It seems sometimes when you to sleep too tired, you feel stuff like sinking down softly, or rising up and seeing yourself sleeping. Almost like internal reassurance that you are getting your rest. Please do not ask me how or where from I know all this.

5:42 AM  
Blogger Sh said...

hi,:)humorous writings...
infact, even your comments section itself,looks like a mini blog.

6:26 AM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Suhail - Ditto. Hey great blog material hahn?

Garfy - Kicking! What's the spouse gotta say about that?? LOL!

Angel - Thanks for breaking the silence...& for coming by!!

MD - Nice theory. That will explain the pantry full of Toblerone and beer and the overflowing book shelves at our place alright! :)

You-know-me - He does! Yay! Thank you! An entire post will be devoted to that ;)

vc - My heart goes out to you! An underlined "M" is no laughing matter folks. At one point we even had an water bed, so all those letters with water sloshing underneath...it felt like a rollercoaster ride!...Another problem with those beds is that it's very easy to fall off, so many a time one VERY upset hubby would wake me up and explain the unfairness of it all to me! :)

7:40 AM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Phatichar - LOVL! Omigod, I can only imagine how another addition to the existing structure would be!! LOL @ bridging the gap and lifesize H :)...How about the blanket/comforter sharing? Is that fair? Ahh, that's a BIG thing here but it required more than a (), so I let it go.

Pallavi - My room-mate in college used to sleepwalk and that gave a whole new meaning to "move about" I have totell ya'll about it someday...

Sudipta - Jeez! Really? I know people like that but to-date we haven't tested the theory by actually HAVING a fire! Will check out your dream post...thanks.

t Fairy - Send link! I can take comfort from the fact that I'm not alone. Or maybe I will make the hubby read it and hope he feels he got a good deal in comparison!

Manu - Trust you to pull some such line on me ! :) And one couldn't even see my black eye in the dark, I looked ravishing :)

Rhyncus - YOU FORGOT THE WATER!!! NAUGHTY NAUGHTY! You are not the responsible young man I had imagined...well at least the repenting is happening! So what, the psychology wasn't paying enough so started the milk-business on the side???!! Ah is there no end to the greed in this world....!?

Kittycreation - Thanks! Yes my readers are a very creative lot :)

7:54 AM  
Blogger anantha said...

Haaaa!.. You DID forget me!

Suhail - A special comment for you coming up!

Nothing of the sort for me! :p

Anyways, I haven't seen you, so the sneakers is not the reason. I am currently reading "Sein Language" by Jerry Seinfeld and was reminded of ur post :p

7:57 AM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Anti - I was pulling a fast one on you buddy. Cos I know you notice this stuff. Come on. Coooomeeee Onnnn.

Very happy to note that Jerry's dress sense is nothing to do with this. How is Sein language??

8:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WHAT A BLOG. It's Monday, don't we deserve a new post?

8:03 AM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Amused - Thanks! My readers deserve way more than what I can give 'em (The syrup is overflowing here)...LOL

8:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

watching women wax their legs is fascinating but painful. god, how can you all do it?

8:21 AM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Anon - fascinating? I guess watching people inflict pain on themselves can be. we'll all stop the day people (read men) stop admiring a good pair of legs. HA! Like that will happen!

10:59 AM  
Blogger Rhyncus said...

I didn't 'forget' the water. I simply waved it away. And no, there is no repentence, only compensation (no alcohol the next day). You imagined I was a responsible chap? But then, I always held that you have a wild imagination.
And its actually the other way round. Moment I figure out how to make the psychology pay, bye bye milk. OK, lemme echo 'amused' there and request a new one.

2:43 PM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Rhyncus - Now you say you waved it away!! What kinda friends do you have who allow the waving after the drinking? Come to beantown boy, and we will show you the responsible partying and how it is done :)

yes it is time for a new one...hmmm should i go the short-story way or pick on the hubby??...we'll see what the evening brings...

when do you sleep rhyncus? your comment-times don't fall under patterns like everybody else's does...

3:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rhyncus, when Gabby has started to keep a tab on your drinking habits, sleeping patterns etc..you don't need to panic. She's just prepping you for a wife you might have one day.

4:21 PM  
Blogger AAA said...

Hope your weekend was good! :)

4:55 PM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Alpha - I'm just being observant, I'm not the one with a stalker inside me :)

Khushee - It was. Time to blog about it now, yes?

7:51 PM  
Blogger mrhaney said...

i noticed one thing. you sure have a lot of comments. how did you get so popular.
i think some nights we sleep better than others and don't know it.

8:10 PM  
Blogger GratisGab said...

Hi Mrhaney - I'm surprised myself :) I guess some days I have some good stuff and on others I'm just riding the wave. Either way, I guess I'm lucky to have have such enthusiastic and loyal readers. Thanks for coming by!!

8:20 PM  

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