The Need for Sleep

I'm a grumpy person when I don't get enough sleep. The worse part is that I work at 2:00am so I have to go to bed in the middle of the afternoon, which is really hard when you are out and about with your family and you have to head back home so you can get to bed by 5:00pm, more often then not I can't do it and when I don't do it for a couple of nights my whole sleep schedule gets thrown out of whack and you don't even want to see me on a night (or day?) like that.

The problem is trying to remain calm when I have been running on three to four hours of sleep a night for a couple of nights. I just like spending time playing with my kids and having to say goodnight to them in the middle of the afternoon is gut wrenching, but if I don't get to sleep then I become as my daughter likes to call me 'an ogre'. Unfortunately my wife often gets the blunt end of my ogreness because when I am trying to sleep and the kids are being just kids then I will of course emerge from my cave and ask why she isn't doing more to keep the kids quiet when once I've had some sleep I realize that if I had only gone to bed earlier then the sounds the kids make wouldn't have waken me at all, after all I am a heavy sleeper.

This situation has Catch 22 written all over it. (A fine book I might add if you like dark humor) Miss time with your kids so you can sleep, don't sleep and eventually become grumpy with your kids. If only I didn't want to go back to school and just take a day job.