This shall be considered Amendment #2 to the Spousal Immunities and Protections for Sanity (SIPS) Bill of Rights:

Amendment #2: The Right to a Good Night’s Sleep

The caregiver has the right to expect that nighttime is, in fact, for sleeping.

This amendment recognizes that:

• Wandering the house at 2 a.m. is not an emergency.
• Rearranging furniture at 3 a.m. is not an emergency.
• Looking for an object that does not exist at 4 a.m. is not an emergency.
• Asking whether it is morning yet every forty-five minutes is definitely not an emergency.
• Misplacing the dog even though the dog is sleeping in her bed is not an emergency
• Noticing spouse has chosen to sleep in another bed is not invitation to join said spouse in said alternative bed

The caregiver shall be entitled to at least one uninterrupted stretch of sleep long enough to remember her own name.

Furthermore, sleep deprivation shall not be used as evidence of poor character. Temporary irritability, misplaced reading glasses, emotional overreactions, and forgetting why one walked into a room shall be recognized as foreseeable consequences of chronic exhauston.

The caregiver shall have the inalienable right to nap without guilt, accept respite without apology, and postpone nonessential household duties until such time as consciousness has been fully restored.

More over, in such a state, actions taken by the caregiver to derive pleasure, to escape, shall not be seen as dereliction of duties.

While Uncle Lewy may decline to honor this amendment and while this right is frequently violated, the right itself remains valid and in full force.

This amendment is adopted forthwidth!

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