I suffer from what I can best describe as insomnia. Part of the problem is my waking up late on some mornings, especially on the weekends.

This means that I’m not really tired before I need to go to sleep. Sometimes I cannot fall asleep even when I’ve been awake for an appropriate amount of time.

I got into bed at around 11 p.m. Sunday night. I needed to be awake by 8 a.m. to get ready for work. I ended up pushing my alarm back an hour, but I didn’t get that amount of sleep Monday morning. I ended up lying in bed for that hour just waiting for my alarm to go off again.

All told I got somewhere along the lines of four hours sleep before work Monday morning. I don’t know if I need to get in bed earlier, turn the TV off sooner or stop sleeping in when my precious days off roll around.

Another part of the problem is I tend to be a bit of a night owl anyway. I’m not a very happening person though, so staying up at night usually involves TV or Xbox for me.

I don’t want to habitually use any kind of medicine as a sleep aid, but I could barely keep my eyes open on Monday in the office.

I know none of this concerns any readers, but so long as I have your ear…or eyes as it were, I might as well yammer on about my sleep woes.

There were infomercials on several channels for a new style of pillow on Sunday night. The people on the show kept going on and on about how good of a night’s sleep they get now. This was playing on two or three channels, and it felt like the hosts and my cable provider were mocking my inability to fall asleep.

I had the same problem in college. My roommate made a point to shut everything off by midnight, which was best for both parties in the long run. I couldn’t begin to count how many nights I ended up staring at the ceiling waiting to feel even remotely tired enough to fall asleep.

I average waiting two hours or more a night in the dark before the land of darkness and dreams finally overcame me.

So the next time your kids or siblings tell you they are bored, tell them to lie down in a bed with nothing electronic on for two solid hours. It seems to put everyone to sleep but me. That’s real boredom there.

The only things that kept me from going insane on those many nights were my iPod and my overactive imagination.

You might be surprised at what a bored, sleep-deprived mind will come up with while   in bed with nothing to stimulate the senses.