My experience, from the inside looking out, was that I didn't sleep much last night. I had had a cup of coffee in the evening and was totally wired. This I did on purpose, since I had important stuff to do as a follow up to a commitment and I had to be alert and awake (the world needs more lerts but not more wakes).

So my perception was that I was short on sleep and slept poorly, at least for the first portion of the night. I'd roll over and glance at the clock and it seemed I was just lying there, awake.

But and however, I wear a monitor 24/7. It records my steps, how many stairs I've climbed, how many calories I've burned.

And it records when I went to sleep, how many times and when I woke up, how long it took me to go back to sleep, total sleep time and a sleep efficiency %.

So...I didn't have insomnia. I did wake up every hour or so at first, but I ended up with 7 1/2 hours sleep and a 95% efficiency. So much for self-reporting.

I used to notice a similar phenomenon with my husband. He would swear up and down that he didn't sleep a wink, but I, who shared a bed with him, could testify to "snore time" because he was keeping me awake. I'd stay awake reading until he went into deep REM sleep and became quieter. I knew he wasn't going as short on sleep as he claimed.

Funny how our minds can play tricks on us. I guess deep sleep really is a form of unconsciousness and an occasional glance at the clock can make us think we've been awake the whole time.

I'll have to find some other reason for today's lethargy.