The other night I was lying in my bed, trying to get to sleep, like a responsible grown-up. I wriggled around to get comfy, closed my eyes, and waited to drift off to sleep. Half an hour later, I was still lying there, wide awake, while my brain acted like a little child adamantly insisting they're not tired, and refusing to go to bed, despite being exhausted.
I decided to read a bit of my book to try to give my brain something to do for a little while, in a sneaky attempt to tire it out. This... was not a clever plan. My book was not only so engaging that I couldn't put it down until I knew what happened next, it was also soul-destroyingly upsetting. This led to me being wide awake, bawling my eyes out over these fictional characters, and soaking my pillow in tears. Not the best method of getting to sleep.
Eyes dried (and pillow turned over), I tried once again to sleep, but to no avail. My brain kept going back to the events in my book, which would set me off crying again.
I decided to get up out of bed and do something different. I went on the computer.
Now, as anyone in the world can tell you, going on the computer will NOT make you tired and want to sleep - in fact, it will keep you awake far past the time you decide you ought to go to bed. Stupidly, because I was overtired, I didn't think of this.
Somehow, it was now 5:30 in the morning. I was yawning a little, but my brain was still just as active. I'd tried meditation, self-hypnosis, stopping all thoughts, listening to music, and allowing my brain to do what it wanted. None of these had worked. I needed to somehow tire myself out to the point that I couldn't think, and could just fall blissfully into sleep. The gym opened at 6am.
As the doors opened, I was there, bag in hand, waiting in the queue to check in. A queue? Why would people go there at this time out of choice?! Crazy folk.
After an exhausting work-out, I staggered back to my car and sat down. My whole body was shaking uncontrollably. I drove home (all the while thinking that I probably wasn't safe to drive) and stumbled up the steps into my house, not sure whether I wanted to cry from exhaustion, collapse, or fall asleep. I chose the latter, and stumbled gratefully into my bed. Within moments, I was asleep.
I'd love to say that the story ended there, and I got a great night's (or rather, day's) sleep, but alas. The people who live below me decided that today, they'd get out a pneumatic drill. Just, y'know, for kicks. They waited until about an hour after I'd fallen to sleep, to start their relentless drilling, pounding, banging, and generally making as much noise as was humanly possible with a bag full of tools. I woke up numerous times with my walls vibrating to bangs, crashes, and drilling sounds. I "slept" like this, on and off until 2:20pm, when I decided that no matter how tired I still was, I ought to get up.
I spent the afternoon at the cinema with friends, and then at a casual christmas party in the evening. As soon as I sat down at the party, my eyes were starting to droop, and it was all I could do to keep my end of conversations going. After a couple of hours I excused myself, drove home, blasting cold air at my face to keep myself awake, and collapsed into bed. This time, I went straight to sleep. There was no drilling.
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