Why I can't sleep at night

I've lived alone before, right? So why am I having so much trouble sleeping when Victor is out of town? At first I thought it was all in my head...the creaks and bumps in the night. Finally last night I decided to get up to bed before midnight! My theory in the past was the later I go to sleep the quicker the morning will come. Bad theory for a person who needs at least seven good hours.

Before drifting off to sleep I play a few word games to make me tired and finally my eyelids become heavy enough to close. Then, about an hour into the REM cycle I awake to a knocking as if someone is at my front door. I thought maybe it was in a dream so I just stayed in bed and didn't worry about it. Then I heard a noise like someone was opening my mail slot on my front door...NOT COOL!! Ok, it could have been the wind, no big deal. But the final bit that put me over the edge was when I heard the entry gate to the front door bang closed (note the photo to the right: when I'm home alone I keep the gate closed because you can hear when it opens and closes from our bedroom). That's when I sort of freaked out. Our bedroom faces the front so I jumped up to see if I could see that anyone was walking away from our house. Of course not. So I turned the light on and looked down stairs to see if someone had dropped something in the mail slot. Nope.

At that moment it was 12:45am and I didn't get myself back to sleep until 2am. It was aweful. I plan on taking a huge nap today.