Regardless of what I have done during the day or what I have to do the next morning, I can never fall asleep on Sunday night. I think I could run the Portland Marathon in the morning and swim the Columbia River in the afternoon and I would still be wired come 11:00pm that night. Usually this isn’t a problem since I work nights. This morning however I had a conference to attend and needed to be bright eyed and bushy tailed by 7:30am.
This morning’s conference was by invitation and a limited number of personnel from each nursing unit were selected to attend. My nurse manager invited me, thinking that I would have a lot to contribute. I really wanted to be in tip-top shape for this thing, so I went to bed at about 10:30pm. I lay awake all night, tossing and turning. I eventually retired to my couch hoping that a change of scenery would help. It didn’t. When my alarm went off at 5:30am, I knew it was going to be a very long day.
I met a couple of gals from work at a local coffee shop to carpool. I ordered a large Americano hoping that it would help me at least get through the morning. When we arrived at the conference, I was surprised to see my nurse manager sitting at the table. Well, no dozing off during the many speeches that morning. I wanted to make a good impression, so I put on my best “happy and wide awake” face and sipped my coffee.
About two hours in, I felt myself drifting off. My coffee was cold, so I went up to the continental breakfast buffet for a refill. I was determined to get through the day without my manager detecting my lack of sleep. Good employees always get plenty of sleep!
Throughout the day, I think I drank about ten cups of coffee. I still felt run down for the majority of the conference, but I managed to stay awake. Success!
When I was walking out at the end of the day with my manager and fellow employees, we passed the reception that had been set up. We were all ready to go home, so no one made a move to join the small group sipping wine and nibbling on cheese.
“You sure you don’t want a glass of wine?” one of my coworkers asked me.
“No, I’m afraid it would just put me to sleep,” I stated.
To which my nursing manager replied, “Yeah, I was watching you all day. I didn’t think you were going to make it through.”
So much for avoiding detection.
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