The Wee Small Hours of the Morning

This has been a strange week filled with anxiety dreams, headaches, and full-time therapy! I am really hoping that all of these things are not related since I love doing full-time therapy and, well, you know...

Anyway, I fall into bed exhausted every night and then dream all night long. 
This is not typical for me - I rarely remember my dreams. These dreams are directly tied into my work - I am dreaming about being switched from one place to another, about secret meetings, and about needing to be in 14 places at once to get the job finished. It interests me that none of my anxiety dreams have anything to do with my clients or music therapy, but that just indicates to me that music therapy sessions are the things that are right in my life right now.

Now, you may be wondering why I'm writing about this.

Me, too.

This is one of the phenomena that happens when I am not sleeping the way I want - seven straight hours and under lots of covers - I start to obsess about non-issues and they start to take over my consciousness. It is currently early morning, and I awoke at 3am for some reason. So, take your chances...

Here are the things that tend to take over my brain at 3am...
  • Thoughts about my education
  • Songs that flit through my head - wonderful compositions that are there for a second and then gone again, never to be heard or remembered EVER again!! (These are ALWAYS songs that I feel would be the magic song for a particular client. I try to make an effort to remember them, but never do! Probably in the light of day, these songs would not be the panacea that I believe them to be at 3am, but I will never know...) [Self-pity here - can you feel it??? Snark!]
  • Thoughts about finances
  • Wishing for more sleep - this is especially bad when the cat is sleeping peacefully...
  • Minor frustrations that appear to be more major in the still of the night
What does this have to do with music therapy? I think lots - because the health of the therapist has lots to do with the quality of the therapy. The concept of health includes being well-rested, being able to handle any and all situations placed in front of you, and being able to problem-solve. Rest has lots to do with this concept of health.

Tonight, most of the folks in the US will "fall-back" by changing our clocks. I am never sure why we do this as it does not make much sense to me, but I have to do it in order to be time compliant with the rest of the world. Most of us seem to think that this means that we get to sleep an extra hour. For me, it means that I'll be getting up at 2am instead of 3am. I think I'll put some staff paper on the desk, and just embrace the dreams as messages and try to capture the songs as they arrive in my brain...

Sweet dreams, everyone!

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