I followed up my Fun Night On Twitter with a terrible night’s sleep. My brain was buzzing and wouldn’t let me drop off for a good couple of hours. Then there were dreams and occasional wakings up. Then there was waking up before the alarm had even gone off, followed by not being able to get back to sleep again.
It was not awesome.
I rarely have significant trouble sleeping. I’m definitely not the sort of person who nods off as soon as their head hits the pillow, nor am I completely immune to being woken up by random noises in the middle of the night. However, I still sleep pretty well as a rule: I’d still grade myself an A- for sleep. Consequently, it hits me pretty hard when the proper amount of sleep doesn’t happen. Given that today is a work day, having a lie in is not an option. There are knock on effects. My Morning Shift is the first thing to get cancelled—I don’t get up to write; instead I hit that snooze button like its a morphine drip. Extra coffee helps, but more as a distraction than a restorative.
Unsurprisingly, tired though my body feels, my mental state probably suffers more. Emotions bubble far more vividly to the surface, particularly the negative ones, with less of a shield between me and them. I’m less happy, and more sad (except when the tiredness reaches critical levels, at which point I hit a form of mild hysteria wherein I will chat and giggle incessantly–a phenomenon I have now dubbed inevitibabble). At work I’ll immerse myself in whatever routine tasks I can, which seems to help a lot. At home I’ll give the kinderbesten free reign to entertain themselves, as that’ll avoid any emotionally expensive arguments that I can’t afford.
Eventually, finally, blissfully, it will be bedtime. At which point I will typically find I can’t sleep …