Sleep!

As of last post, I was in the middle of a rollercoaster drama with insomnia. I tried everything I could think of (warm milk, exercise, reading, light therapy, food, no food...) to get a good night's sleep, but the vast majority of nights I would sleep for the first four hours, then tossing turning hell. I did Ambien every night for a week, but couldn't stand the side effects. The days after taking it I felt more and more "out of it", until I was starting to see things that weren't there. There aren't supposed to be any cats in McMurdo. Eek.

I've been thinking and reading up on it, and just on a lark decided to try taking multivitamins. With no freshies for months, the diet here is not exactly what I would call healthy, but I never thought to take supplements. I started taking a multivitamin every day, and coincidentally the sleep problem completely disappeared. So far I've had nine good night's sleep in a row, which is heaven. I can't say for sure that the vitamins did it, but it sure looks that way. I'm continuing to do the light therapy, and exercising every day. I'm also using earplugs, which seems to help a lot. It's not that my room is loud, but the white noise emanating from the heater ducts might have been contributing to my waking up in the middle of the night.

Last weekend we got together for a group photo of the town. You can't see me very well-- I'm in a black parka and fur hat near the right edge below the two doors.

Going camping tonight. Heading out with some friends to the Kiwi A-frame on the ice shelf to get away from town a little bit. It's not the greatest weather, though not unusually cold for this time of year. It's -24F with about a 20mph wind. It's been calm for the last few days, but the wind just kicked up. It's crazy, but it feels really warm out when it's -25F and calm. I'll probably melt when I get back to the real world.