Though maybe not.
Currently already finished my surgical posting and well into my second posting, which is O&G. It's usually pretty nice. Minus the screaming ladies and babies. Which pretty much constitutes the whole job. But you get my drift.
I'm on holiday right now. I was on the night shift on Wednesday, so I have half of Thursday and Friday off. Then I have my allotted weekend off. So that gives me a shit load of off days. Of which I am enjoying by accompanying my mum all the way to Perlis so that we can visit my brother/her son. It's all pretty fine and dandy but a bus trip to Perlis takes around 10 hours.
Which brings me to my title: of sleeping in chairs.
Because that was the second night in a row that I did not get to sleep in a real bed.
So. As I have mentioned earlier, I had the night shift on Wednesday. What this usually constitutes is I go to work at 9 pm, and finish work at 12 noon the next day. What ever people say about you being at work and are not supposed to be sleeping, ignore those bastards because they probably have never worked a night before in their lives. While working nights, if there is nothing going on, all your patient's are sleeping and no one's in any need of anything right now, get some rest. Take a nap. Even if it's only for 10 minutes, grab some shut eye. Because whatever people say, it's night. Your body has basically been programmed to shut down when it's dark outside.
But here lies the conundrum; where to sleep?
The hospital of course does have rooms where on call officers are allowed to sleep. There's even a complex which no one uses because it's too out of the way. There are rooms in each ward, but those are usually conquered by medical officers with a higher pay grade than you. And besides, those rooms are also usually out of the way.
In these cases, I for one, always opt to sleep in chairs. Whether it be in the chair in the office next to the nurses' counter, or at the nurses' counter itself.
Because I have a need to be on hand if anything happens.
And so, I spend a lot of time sleeping in chairs.
I've slept in office chairs, plastic chairs, plastic-all-in-one-row waiting room chairs and one time, a bench in front of the nurses's counter where I lay down to sleep, much to the hilarity of the working staff nurses that night.
And I believe that all this experience has made me a connoisseur of sleeping in chairs. So here are some tips I'd like to share with you.
1. Always stretch out your legs.
If you can, always grab at least two chairs. Use the less comfortable one to put your feet on. Lean back as far as you can go without your ass hanging in air, and sleep.
Why? Because I have piss poor circulation and when I sleep with my legs hanging/mildly compressed at main vein points, my legs fall asleep too fast and when I wake up, I can't feel them, or I immediately get cramps.
If you can get three, line them up in a row and lie down and sleep.
2. If you can find a surface for your head, use it.
Your neck will love you for it. Because there's only so much a hand under your chin can do.
3. Find a comfortable position.
Or whatever's relatively comfortable. Because face it, you're sleeping on chair, not a spring mattress.
I slept princess-style on an office chair once. I woke up and couldn't walk for 5 minutes because my legs fell asleep and cramps. I also curled up in an office chair and woke up to a colleague yelling because he thought there wasn't anyone on the chair. I screamed too.
4. And the best advice for last
- if you can find a comfortable flat surface, sleep there. Because, a hard floor is a by far more comfortable than a chair will ever be. Unless it's one of those reclining, sleeping chairs, because those are the bomb.
On another note, I had to write this down somewhere because I sort of have to.
On the bus to Perlis, while sleeping in a chair for my second night in a row (though by far more comfortable), I had a dream. I dreamed that this one guy, that I loved so long ago, said he loved me. And it felt so beautiful, that I woke up and smiled. Even if it was just a dream.
I know it's dumb, but I can't help it.
I hope he's doing great. And that, where ever he is, he's loved.
ain'tsayingthatI'mpiningoranything,okay?
akunona
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