Rude awakening, or: Thanks, Jane!

Waking up in the morning (or for some, the afternoon or evening) is something we all do, so we don't really think about it. Most of the time, I'll set my alarm clock to the local classical station, setting the alarm time for about half an hour before I actually want to get up. That way I can hit the snooze button, lie in bed for another half hour listening to music, or get up if I'm no longer feeling sleepy. But when I don't have to work in the morning, I'd rather just wake up naturally. If I am awakened by an outside force, I'd rather it be a benign one, like the tiny feet of my guinea pigs running around in their cages, or a beautiful woman gently nudging me awake.

Some mornings- most, really- I'm not that lucky. But aside from some highly unlikely candidates (a grizzly bear tearing off my arm, say) I can think of few wakeups that would be less unpleasant than the one I got this morning. Yep, I had a cramp in one of my calf muscles. Around 6:30 this morning, I was in the middle of a fairly pleasant dream when it hit me. I remember actually crying out in pain, that's how bad it was. What could I do? There I was, my mind still not alert, suddenly shocked into a waking state by a sharp pain.

Naturally, the first thing I did was reach down and try to massage it out, but that didn't really work for me. When I got my composure a little more, I hit on the idea of stretching out the muscle, so I turned over on my stomach, planted my big toe on the bed, and pushed back on the leg, which helped to alleviate the pain. But I think what helped just as much was the glass of water I usually keep by the bed. I started doing this a few years ago in the winter, when the heat would get me dried out, and I never got out of the habit. I think it helped that I had just watched Scott Stark's More Than Meets the Eye: Remaking Jane Fonda, which contains audio of one of Jane's old 20 Minute Workout tapes. As I lie in bed, trying to work out the pain, I thought of Jane saying, "now go drink a lot of water- muscles need to be hydrated," or something like that. Sure enough, after half a glass of water and some stretching, I managed to get back to sleep. Whew.