Circadian Rhythms we first learned about them in nursing school, or perhaps it was in one of our anatomy and physiology courses. We learned about the body’s sleep cycle, and the different stages of sleep. We learned about REM sleep (rapid eye movement), and how important it is for our creativity and emotional well being. We learned that how if our sleep is interrupted prematurely our bodies must restart the descent through the various cycles before again finally entering the desired REM. Ironically it’s in my job as a healthcare professional that I find my Circadian Rhythm most interrupted. I recently had a conversation with a paramedic who was inquiring about various sleep aids, meds, and over the counter options for inducing sleep. His body abused by years of 24 hour shifts had reached a point in which it was refusing to shut down, and he had just experienced several days of complete insomnia. I recounted some of my own experiences, and he replied “Your body is already well on its way to being messed up.” (slight paraphrase) On my days off I find myself sleeping and sleeping. I finally drag myself out of bed and eat my breakfast about the time most people are preparing for lunch. If I have a definite plan and mission for the day I can usually function fairly well, but if I stay around the house with little definition I frequently find myself lying down for just one more nap. With the numerous interruptions associated with attempting to sleep during the day I never quite reach the REM level of sleep, and I arise still dragging the tail I do not have. That is dragging it until evening approaches, and then I suddenly find myself wired and ready to scale tall mountains. Unfortunately tall mountains are more difficult to scale at night, and not to mention the fact it’s typically more difficult to find friends willing to scale them with you. Particularly if most of your friends have normal jobs. Sometimes I attempt to stay up until about the time I would normally get off of work, and often that works out better than the alternative. The alternative of falling asleep close to the time normal people do, and then waking up at about three or four in the morning unable to sleep. Ironically that’s the time of day I typically get off of work. The next four hours are usually a fairly miserable affair as I’m determined not to get out of bed, but fail to fall asleep until the sun starts sliding up over the horizon, the neighborhood dogs start to bark, and my pager suddenly goes off with a sharp yelp. Some mornings I roll over and silence it hoping one of the other volunteers responds. Other mornings I extract myself from the bed, respond to assist the medics, before returning home to the dysfunctional cycle of naps. The nights I do stay up waiting for a reasonable hour to fall asleep I often develop these strange hankerings. On a recent night I suddenly developed this intense desire for a globe. For about as long as I can remember I’ve had this strange fascination with globes. It likely began in our one room school deep in the Canadian wilderness. The snow may have been drifting over our windows limiting our outdoor recess options, but we had a globe. And frequently our breaks from academia consisted of spinning it. We would close our eyes place our finger on lightly on the surface of the globe, and we would give the globe a mighty twirl. Once the globe stopped its rotation we would open our eyes attempting to discover where we would one day live, travel, or even marry. The globe although well aged and weathered still spun with grace. The humidity of changing seasons had caused it to begin separating a bit at its seam near the equator. To us the globe and the thrill of spinning it represented opportunity, wonder, and possibility. At that point in time some of us felt somewhat trapped by the decisions our parents had made to live in a land that even the mall version of Santa Clause feared to tread. The teacher would declare recess over, and in keeping with the nature of kids worldwide one of us would daringly give the globe one last spin, before darting back to our seats dreaming about the distant land of Burkina Faso. I may have grown up, and even gone to college since those days, however the thought of spinning a globe and dreaming still intrigues particularly at three in the morning when I can’t sleep. I still dream about traveling to distant lands. Some of those dreams have only intensified since obtaining my coveted degree. The trials of nursing school were frequently eased by the thought of one day embarking on medical mission trips to far corners of the world. Hearing stories brought home by my uncles, and my older brother I dreamed of traveling to Western Africa the countries of Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Hearing a presentation on a clinic being built in Gahanna I dreamed about one day helping out there. Reading about the conflict in Sudan I felt a tug at my heart. The needs in the world are incredible, and very few corners of globe fail to intrigue me. Last spring I received a call about a last minute team going to Asia, and I wanted to drop everything and jump on a plane. I had just started my orientation at the hospital, and the timing wasn’t quite right. With the summer winding down, and the desire to fulfill some of these dreams increasing I began exploring my options. A coworker mentioned the need for team members on an exploratory medical mission trip to Bolivia. I submitted my application. I wrote my check. I requested my PTO. I found coverage for my weekend. I got my shots, and I submitted my visa application. The trip was scheduled to wing us across the Andes Mountains come mid October. Needless to say I was pumped about the possibilities. But then about a week ago I began to hear about the rumblings of political instability, and I began to wonder. Each day bringing new uncertainty, and this morning I received an email stating the trip has been cancelled. Am I disappointed? Yes! Will I be ok? I think so. But in the meantime on one of these sleepless nights if you happen to wake up at three in the morning, look out your window, you might see me driving past in my attempt to find that 24 hour globe store I’ve been dreaming so much about finding. With the Bolivia option appearing like it’s now gone I’ve been wanting to find a globe. I’d really like to give it just one more whirl. | 
