Sleep and Night Duties !!!

It's night time and the first thing that comes to your mind is the sleep. Oh yea the irresistible urge to fall into the seductively waiting arms of sleep.Most of you if not all of you will understand this allure of sleep.
Right from the start sleep had always been my Achilles heel.Nothing could pull me away from my time with her. There were times when I had slept across my bed with shoes on just because I was too lazy or tired and didn't want to waste my time with sleep.
My upbringing was in a foster home with 35 other kids. So we had a daily timetable to follow. And everyday dinner was at 8pm which was followed by a study session for around two hours usually upto 11pm and as usual my head would be deeply buried in my books, fast asleep. Time and time again being caught sleeping head down I developed the art of sleeping while sitting without nodding off. With only one drawback, I left my jaws hanging wide open . And one day I found my mouth filled with a fistfull of salt as I was caught sleeping during the study hour. Since then I might have left many habits but the jaw opening remains.
So you can understand my state of panic when as a student nurse I was posted in night duties that too for a week. Which meant 12 hours of work while the world slept. I was not prepared for this but there was no way out. And to top that our hospital had this strict 'no sleeping on night duty 'policy. At first I did all the work that was assigned to me.Then came first onslaught of sleep I resisted , then the second,I maintained a stoic appearance. Then finally the on the third onslaught I was standing there like a zombie with bloodshot eyes. I was actually standing and sleeping. Thankfully the nurses were always there to help me out.One gave me a dark corner with a table to put my heavy head down which was getting heavier by the second. And this other time I was given an empty patients bed with curtains all around.Yea as a student nurse I somehow managed the night duties thanks to the nurses.
But then came the time when I started work as a Registered Nurses. I worked in the Emergency Room along with ICU for over two years. So as long as there was work to do in the ICU or a patient in the ER, I was wide awake. Sleep was no where near ,but dang,  on a slack night I would sit on a chair fast  asleep in my old position. Yea sitting in a chair with my jaws wide open. A couple of times I have found biscuits and gauze deposited in my mouth by my fellow nurses as I wake up with a start.
One good thing though, in the night duty is the potluck dinner. The nurses on duty bring an assortment of food as we all share a sumptuous dinner in the middle of the night. It's like a mini picnic ;only the eating part.
Anyhow I just had night shift last week in paediatric oncology. And as I was taking a round around 2am I realized how peaceful everyone looked while sleeping without a care in the world.Well that's what sleep does to us. It just lulls us into a world without care full of peace and rest.
But as for me and my struggles with sleep they will continue. Though thanks to the place where I now work, I get to sleep in between for two to three hours during the night that too lying down on a nice bed. Life couldn't be better !!! Eh!! What say!!