Thursday, November 8, 2007

F#%@ing Insomnia

Can anyone relate to this?

It’s just past one a.m. on a Monday night and you’re finally sleepy enough to put down the compelling novel you’ve been reading and turn off the bedside lamp. Time to visit dreamy places. Smoosh your face into the pillow just so. Close your eyes. Ahh…

But no! You’re suddenly aware of being awkwardly sandwiched between The Life Partner and The Dog. (In theory, you could push an 8-pound dog off the bed, but in reality, you’re the pushover.) The Life Partner is snoring like a Havana Chevy and The Dog’s breath stinks. The Life Partner is 18 feet tall and sleeps on his side, taking up two-thirds of the bed and poking his bony knees into your back. The Dog kisses your face, and you just know she’s been eating “cat cookies” again.

In desperation, you get up from your warm comfy bed and relocate to the much less inviting rock-like couch in the office. Try some deep-breathing relaxation techniques. These merely bore and frustrate you. But although you’re not sleepy enough to sleep, you don’t have the energy to actually do anything.

The computers hum and their various lights glow, reminding you that you could get off your ass and write. Maybe continue transcribing the journal you kept on a trip to Cuba ten years ago. But that’s not very appealing at all – the whole process to date has been like pulling your own teeth. Without anesthetic. When you read certain stuff you’ve written in the past, it’s so fucking banal you could just slap yourself senseless. Which would arguably be one way to bring on sleep.

So you get off the couch and blog about insomnia. And it’s two a.m. now. You recall The Life Partner saying to you recently “I can tell when you’ve taken a sleeping pill – you always snore.” D’accord, he nudges you when this happens, thereby waking you up, and you feel, shall we say, pretty strongly about being awake when you want to be asleep.

The blogging, like the deep breathing, eventually starts to bore and frustrate you, because it isn’t sleep. Finally, you decide to take a pill and go back to your warm comfy bed. You may not be 18 feet tall, but you’ve got knees of your very own. :^)

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

A couple of things I do are move the clock so you can't read the time.
-Don't go to work on the computer the monitor lighting wakes you up.
-If you are awake for more than 30 mins-get out of bed.
-reading on the sofa
-Don't eat too late.
-go to sleep when you are tired not when super tall life partner goes to bed.
-No caffine after 12 am
-Try sleeping on the other side of the bed
hope sthese help
:)

Anonymous said...

A couple of things I do are move the clock so you can't read the time.
-Don't go to work on the computer the monitor lighting wakes you up.
-If you are awake for more than 30 mins-get out of bed.
-reading on the sofa
-Don't eat too late.
-go to sleep when you are tired not when super tall life partner goes to bed.
-No caffine after 12 am
-Try sleeping on the other side of the bed
hope these help
:)

Papillon said...

Thanks, anonymous – all very good suggestions, especially the reading on the sofa one. It would probably work even better if you're reading something boring!

Anonymous said...

boring like "the history of the Liberal Party of Canada"?

Papillon said...

Zzzzzzzzzzz....

DeLi said...

aww, i do get insomia from time to time. i just get the most uninteresting book that is around and surely it lulls me to sleep :)

Anonymous said...

After my first 4 years with the wriggling Snorlax, I got tired (literally) of crawling to the hard LR futon/the bed in the attic/the bathtub, and we started renting a 3BR (2BR and an office). Ah, dreamy queen-sized silent comfort! My best suggestion is to get a more comfortable office couch (or self-inflating air mattress for it) , so that at least you can crawl away to privacy and read about Trudeau's sock colour choices, then fall asleep. Good luck, I feel for you.

Papillon said...

Thanks for the comment, Nubbie.

I think Trudeau's socks had to have been red.

;^)

Anonymous said...

...yelling it out as Gilbert Gottfried would,

HAVE YOU TRIED MASTURBATING?!!


Now I've left a comment...

What happened to Amanda? She sounds hot.

;)
Appropriately yours as always,
Me!

Papillon said...

That wouldn't put me to sleep. But I suppose being awake would feel better.

;^)

M said...

i'm generally insomniac and don't put down my book until its absolutely necessary to forcefully sleep else i wont get up for work the next morning ;-)

shiny said...

I read this when you wrote it but it's all the better now during a fairly stubborn bout of insomnia. The worst thing ever.

Debera said...

I also have troubles with insomnia. Anonymous offers some great advice for getting to sleep. I also found some great sleeping tips at http://onlineceucredit.com/edu/social-work-ceus-sd. I hope this is helpful for everyone with insomnia.