The “Alarm Clock Suntan”

I’ve started referring to those nights before big meetings or before the start of a long road trip where you wake up somewhere between midnight and 2 a.m. and never find a way to make it back to sleep as the nights I am working on my “alarm clock suntan.”

It’s given this name because it’s one of those nights where you stare at the alarm clock so much you could literally get yourself a tan while looking at it – consciously trying to make it back to sleep. Usually, you don’t make it back to sleep because you are playing through your mind all the details that go into a meeting or that you are wanting to remember for that meeting.

The start to this week has been nothing short of busier-than-usual.  Both Sunday and Monday nights were “alarm clock suntan” nights, with a lot of the out-of-town staff coming in the office for a big meeting on Monday, and then leaving the house at 5:30 Tuesday morning to get to a large client meeting. Sometimes you simply don’t have any choice but to have monumental events on back-to-back days. In my own mind, here is how I handle days like these:

1. Always remember that you are far more prepared than you ever think you are.
2. Think back to a time when you were very relaxed and try to take yourself back to that place mentally.
3. Remind yourself that nobody is going to be able to look at you and think – gee, that guy didn’t sleep last night. That’s usually never a first impression someone thinks.
4. Know that the end is near… Not the end of your life, but in a few hours you will be past that big event in your life causing you to no sleep, and you will be on to something else.
5. Understand that you have to find time to make it up. My kids sometimes ask after I get home from a week of travel, “Why does Dad sleep so much?”  Well – maybe they will understand one day.

I read a quote the other day that said, “You only get one go-around in this life, so you might as well make it count.”

Those are the kinds of things that help you get through the nights when you find yourself working on your “alarm clock suntan.”