From time to time my brain and I go to war and the major casualty of that war is sleep. It’s not enough that I can’t seem to wind down of an evening but when I do feel that wonderful lethargy that precursors the land of nod and fall into bed my brain instantly decides to ponder a variety of things. Try counting sheep, people say, but the only problem is the when I’m in overtired mode counting sheep has the opposite effect as I find myself creating elaborate back stories for said sheep along with names and family trees.
Remember when we were young and our parents would plead with us to have a nap and regardless of whether or not we were tired children all over the world protested just on principal. After all when you’re asleep is when all the interesting things happen, at least from the perspective of a three year old. Oh how I raged against the unfairness of bed-time and afternoon naps and now I can only look back with nostalgia.
I found this little cartoon which offers a rather odd reason as to why some of us have trouble going off to sleep but I think it may be a dangerous idea to place out in the world don’t you. After all the idea of simply wiping out all those who are sleeping while you are awake in an effort to avoid being trapped in their dreams is not as far fetched as you would believe to those of us awake at 3.30 am on night three and with no sleep in sight, is it?
However it does seem to be a trifle excessive at this point to eliminate the entire population just so I can get a full nights sleep. I won’t, however, take it off the table just yet because if I don’t get an uninterrupted nights sleep soon it won’t only be a case of population culling to aid sleep but simply a matter of vengeance against those whose ability to snooze I covet deeply.
Unload and Unwind 
I was just thinking & writing about this topic recently except not as interestingly and well put as your post. Even when I’m physically beat, my mind refuses to relax. I don’t fight it much anymore since I was lucky enough to adjust my work schedule to accommodate later sleeping. I think about lots of stuff while I lay in bed staring at the wall but usually I design a house, that’s just what I do.
I LOVE the quote you found. Great post.
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Designing a house is one of my favourite ways to spend the not sleeping nights – I’ve got the perfect eco-friendly domicile all worked out in my head – all I need to do is win lotto and I’m set. It’s good to hear from another sufferer of the dreaded can’t turn off my brain family.
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Hi Jenni, your dreamless-nights dream house sounds fantastic. Ha-I think that too “If I win the lotto I’ll design” and then I have a non-lotto version. Wishing you sweet dreams! (but as you can see I’m still awake at 4AM!).
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Watch Lost in Translation. That put me to sleep.
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Sleep hell that’ll put you in a coma!!
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Finally someone who doesn’t rave about that movie!! Yay, I’m not alone.
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Well apparently I’m also the only female to find the movie The English Patient one step lower than root canal.
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Not seen it, well, not all the way through. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a good drama; although it is appearing that way.
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I just have an issue with films, books etc that seem to be more focused on their own import than in the story they have to tell. Deeper meanings, and poignant moments lose their appeal when highlighted so obviously and as such lesson the emotions raised by word or picture. My taste is VERY eclectic from Blade to Much Ado About Nothing but what I do hate is pretension when it comes to artistic worth because it is less about the story and more about the impression you are meant to have of the creator of the work.
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Ah, but which version of Much Ado about Nothing? Speilberg lost it for me when his own issues became more pressing than the films he was directing. Still great films, but blighted by his own vision.
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I liked the one with Kenneth Brenner, actually the Shakespearean movies with him and Emma Thompson have always been my favourites. The British productions have always ranked high in my list of must sees and as a rule the movies from the US that I like are the ones where things blow up on a regular basis followed by car chases.
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I think the Brits tend to not always follow the “Hollywood Happy Ending” that seems so prevelant these days. Life isn’t always about the happy ending!
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Most writers have crazy, active brains, so it’s no surprise many of us struggle to sleep. I mean, where are the sheep going? , why are they going there? and who will they see?
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Yes these are the questions that must be answered. 😀
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Great post and love the quote.
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I am with you on that one Jennie for four years now sleep has eluded me! Like you I doze but no where near do I get enough sleep. I am now haunted by the idea that some swine is dreaming me sleepless. This is wrong on many points the too most salient being 1 the toads need to be asleep to dream me awake… How dare they sleep. And 2 it is not fair.
I also find sheep keep me awake they keep multiplying and I loose count this annoys me and that awakes me.
I don’t have an answer but I do empathize with you. xxxx
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That is an interesting thought, but I can see it’s not helpful when you are desperate to sleep yourself. I do hope you have a solid sleep tonight. 🙂
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I believe that you should sleep if you can, and not sleep if you can’t. It is a myth that people should go to bed at 11 pm every night, fall asleep within seven minutes and then wake up at 7 am and start the day. If you have things whirring around in your head, get up and have a second day in the middle of the night. You may need a couple of naps in the day to compensate, but that is OK. There are many healthy sleep patterns and the monophasic one we have been ingrained to believe is correct was invented by the industrialists to fit around the eight-hours-work during the day pattern, and has not at all stemmed from our natural body rhythms. Look at all the societies around the globe who have afternoon siestas, or an early evening nap at dusk. Look up the polyphasic society website and the many different sleep schedules they have listed. It takes the stress out of thinking you have a problem when you don’t.
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I’ve always been a bit of a nightowl. I’ll check out that site you mentioned as it does seem that I more attuned to the later hours of the night than the morning.
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PS. Also look up Winston Churchill. He used to have two sleeps a day. The first was a couple of hours late afternoon. The second was a few hours from the wee hours of the morning until dawn. In between times he was saving the world. Look what you could achieve if you stopped worrying about not sleeping. 🙂
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Been there! Done that! Enjoyed your humor in the wake of fatigue…
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Hmm humour is it – I thought it was verging on hysteria. OK I’ll take humour and run with it – much better than the feeling of sheer babble that comes when exhaustion sets in.
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