To the Graveyard!!! And out!

July 30th, 2008 by jeorav

“Sleep, sleep slumber deep,

I close my eyes with dreams to keep!” (my sleep-inducing spell)

This entry is to acknowledge creations working at schedules intended to rejuvenate the body through the process commonly known as sleep. They are the ones attending to matters, issues or work supposed to be by counterparts on the other hemisphere. They are the ones defying distance or more or less twelve-hour difference to deliver services. KUDOS to the graveyard shifters!!!

I was recently “assigned” (I promise not to use the word “drag” because whether I like it or not, however small the participation, my consent plays a part) to a special project requiring to report for work from late afternoon to hours past midnight. My initial reaction was “ayos, parang inilagay nila ako sa shift na gusting gusto ng katawan ko. Sobra naman yata nila akong mahal”. So I thought. During our first briefing, the bomb landed when the hours required was, get this, 11pm to 8am. I, the eternal believer of pushing one’s self to the limits, felt okay the first night as it covers (although with a three-hour extension) my normal sleep cycle. Two days of this shift, I caught colds.

I had fever the next days. I told myself (again!) “Nothing a good and uninterrupted sleep and rest can handle”. WRONG!!! The streets on our part of Makati City were drilled (like my head swarming on headache and other pains imaginable to man) — scheduled two hours after my slumber. My body is tired, so tired! My fever recurs and signs of anemia presents itself — excessive hairloss (those darn shampoo supposed to be to lock hair strands to your scalp don’t work) and spots (pasa). I was on leave on the third day and three days thereafter is hell.

Maybe lack of sleep creates realizations. I learn to appreciate (which was there all along) the value of God’s gift to man — sleep. The gift I deprived myself all these years and instead availed of DVD marathon, late night reading, television, internet and other crafts. I appreciate how a sleep cycle (3 to 4 hours depending on physiological make-up and balance) can refresh the skin, the mind, the spirit. I have to admit, after a week of “irregular” shift, I appreciate slumber deep and what doing nothing while snoring can do. I appreciate people who are used to working during these hours — fighting sleep, stress while providing good, “world class” services.

I may have two months more in this cycle. If by vitamins, exercise and emotional boost (plus Night Shift Differential), I survived this ordeal, I partake to the acknowledgment to that very reason this entry was written for.