Sleep Deprivation @ MindSay

Many of us often find ourselves here, we have something planned, but you have got to wake up early. Maybe a date, or a party, who knows? For some of us, we end up laying in bed pondering on the many eons people pondered on things. we pretend that we will be able to get to sleep but we are in a pensive state. Many of us like that are the great thinkers, the philosophers, the scientists, the inventors. Hey now, it really wasn't worth it for those of us like that to sleep past three in the afternoon.

God, I am soooo tired. Every time I stay up all night partying I am barely functional the next day. I feel like at any moment I will just keel over. It really makes me wonder how in the hell I used to stay up for weeks on end and still be alive to talk about it.

 

So Jeremy moved out I guess. Which is to say all his shit is still here but he's not. It's sad and strange living here alone. I can't help but hope this will be the reality check he needs to come to his senses. But I highly doubt it, and I'm not holding my breath.

 

I don't really know what else to say. I'm just too freaking sleepy. I think I'm going to watch Almost Famous and then I'm going to bed the minute Amelia does.

 

!!!

 

Last night was interesting. Some parts were great; others sucked.

 

Great part #1 I ate s’more (yeah!).

#2 The wind was minimal.

#3 I saw a lot of my closest friends. They are the kind of friends you don’t see all the time but matter the most.

 

Less great part #1 Random people showing up at our campsite, keeping me up till 3:30 AM.

#2 One of my overly dramatic acquaintances being, well, overly dramatic.

#3 Sleeping in my car was probably the worst option for my back.

 

The plus side is that all-in-all the positives out weighed the negatives and I had a great first camping trip for the summer. Now I need to roll up my sleeping bag, bike seven miles to lose the calories I ate last night, and take a shower.

 

I really want to just go back to bed…

So last night I don't think I made it to bed until sometime after midnight, and I didn't fall asleep until 1.40. This may not sound too bad, except for that I had to get up at 3.00 to drive jewfroart to Logan Airport in Boston... her flight was supposed to leave at 6.05. Actually, her flight did leave at 6.05 but she wasn't on it... even though we showed up at the counter at 5.20, they didn't have enough time to get her through the screening. For some reason, she always gets tagged for a special screening (I think it's the hair... plus, she was carrying two carryons and no checked luggage) and this time they had to wait ten minutes for a woman to come do her patdown. Apparently, it wasn't even an in-depth patdown... no flashlight, rubber gloves, and makeshift TSA-approved stirrups or anything that really neccessitated a woman for the screening. But rules are rules, apparently.

 

Just got off the phone with her. Because United made her miss her flight to DC and her subsequent connection to San Juan, they put her on I think Delta to JFK in New York and reserved her a seat on an American Airlines flight to San Juan. Of course, she got patted down and inspected again, and then when she got to American, they showed a reservation for her... but no ticket. Of course, the ticket that she had was for United, but they needed something that actually said that they were being paid for the flight. After an hour of the AA clerk trying to get word from United, she was finally told to go back to United... which is in another terminal separated by a commuter-type subway. She was almost at the United terminal at 12.20 and her flight leaves at 13.30. Wish her luck and I'll update.

 

Oh yeah, and in about ten minutes I have to drive to another airport... Providence... and pick up another friend who's flying back from a two-day 'not-a-date' with a friend in DC. Yes, I'm getting gas money (and coffee money) for these things, but I'm just about ready to curl up under my desk.

 

So... more later.

When I tell people about polyphasic sleeping (not that I yap about it all the time, but sometimes it comes up in conversation), the most common reaction I get is people shaking their head and saying, "I couldn't do that, because it takes more than a half hour for me to go to sleep."

If you are part of that group, allow me to give some suggestions. While this may seem like a problem to you now, if you skip your normal sleep cycle for a few days, I guarantee that you won't have any trouble falling asleep at the drop of a hat. In fact, after the first couple of days, your biggest issue is trying to stay awake.

Getting to sleep quickly is easy if you follow a few simple rules.

1) close your eyes. I know that sounds obvious, but I've spent many sleepless nights staring at the ceiling, and it really does help if you commit your body to sleep by refusing to open your eyes. No matter how awake you feel, if you close your eyes, it will help you get to sleep.

2) Stretch big. Lie down on your bed, get comfortable, then stretch every muscle in your body. Reach for all four corners of the room, really push your body to stretch as far as you can, hold that for a few seconds, then let go. Let the relief flood through you, and do your best to go with that feeling. It will feel like floating, and it helps if you imagine that you are floating.

3) Think about all your muscles. This is something I picked up from studying hypnosis as a child, but it still works if you want to go to sleep. Go from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, and think about every muscle in between. Relax every one of them individually, and you will end up relaxing the whole body. For instance, there are a series of muscles in the scalp that are tied at the top of your ears. If you close your eyes, you can feel them tensed. So, think about them, picture those muscle groups, and deliberately relax them (this will feel like relaxing your ears). Also, there are dozens of muscles around the corners of the eyes, in the cheeks, around the mouth. As you picture them, relax them, and you'll feel your whole body relax. Then, work down to the neck, find that point in the shoulders where you're always tensing, and relax that. Work your way down the body.

4) Don't think about anything interesting. This is harder than it sounds. When I try to go to sleep, I have a tendancy to think about cool new ideas, or work through a problem that I'm having in my job. I run through movie quotes in my head, and picture new dialog for stories I've come up with. I don't do it deliberately, it's just what the brain does.
In order to combat that, I chant in my head. Seriously, I know how stupid it sounds, but in order to clear my head, I will actually think the word "Ohhhhhhhmmmmmmm" like some kind of yoga or something. I try to hold the note in my mind for as long as I can, until my brain gets the message that we're not trying to solve problems right now.

Anyway, in other news, I'm on day four I think (I started this latest course on Saturday 1/21/06 at 6:00 AM). I'm getting through the nights just fine, I feel a little bit tired all day and all night, but it's entirely manageable, and they tell me that will go away eventually as well.

Oddly, I have the greatest amount of trouble from my 6:00AM and 10:00AM naps. Once I lie down for them, I just can't seem to get up. I wake up extremely groggy, and have just enough energy to set the alarm for another 30 minutes. So, my 6 and 10 AM naps have run an hour apiece, rather than a half hour. I've got to find a way around that. This is one situation where caffeine has failed me. I'm thinking about making myself get up and walk around. In the past, when I've started walking around, I've been able to shake off the wobbling grogginess. Or maybe situps and pushups or something.

Other than that, though, I'm doing fine. I'm getting lots of work done, I have time for reading and playing video games again. It's just generally cool.