July 2, 2014
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Sleepless Nights
“Matt – let’s read. We always read something before we go to sleep.”
“Yes but it’s almost 2AM! I’ve got a lot of things that I wanted to get done tomorrow.” I said.
“You always read a bit to relax and to tire your eyes. Otherwise, you can’t sleep.”
I cringed. “Ok – but no more than 30 minutes.”
An hour later, I was still wide awake.
“Matt, do you want to play Scrabble on your phone?”
“It’s past 3! I really need to sleep.”
“You can always take your pills.”
“I can but I don’t want to. I always feel so tired in the morning. But maybe some Scrabble will unscramble my mind.” I said.
After a couple of futile rounds, I checked my Instagram feed, liked a bunch of photos, checked the news and read some more. By the time I rolled over, I noticed it was starting to get bright outside. I knew it was past 4:30AM but I hoped the light was just the streetlamp. I somehow got to sleep and woke up around 10:30 AM. It took an hour before I made it to the shower. I didn’t bother shaving today. I didn’t want to eat breakfast at home so I walked to a nearby coffeeshop and gulped down some caffeine.
I get stressed every night when I go to bed. I go through variations of this ritual. Some nights, I’m fortunate and can sleep within 30 minutes. Last night was one of the longer bouts of insomnia. Now the day is almost over and I just feel like I wasted the entire day.
*Note: I wrote this on Tuesday July 1st.
Comments (7)
Maybe you want read a chemistry textbook. That makes a lot of people doze off, hehe. By the way, I was chemistry major.
I would have dozed off. I couldn’t handle chemistry. Btw, I always thought you were an engineer. lol…
I know exactly what you mean Matt. I have been there so many times. I wish there was a mantra I could teach you, so it would put you to sleep. Do you have any favorite passage from the Holy Book? May be you could read that before you close your eyes, and try to fathom the meaning. It has helped me sometimes. Just a suggestion.
Don’t drink any caffeinated drinks after 1 pm.
I got chemistry and then Engineer degree.
I enjoyed your post. Hope your weekend is going well.
Have you tried listening to relaxing audio on Youtube? try searching “ASMR” – it might do the trick.
I’ve listened to some of the waterfall, rainfall etc.. but not ASMR. I’ll check that out – thank you.