Insomnia stinks. For as long as I can remember I have had problems sleeping...I remember back in grade two laying awake at 2am crying because I was thinking about how horrible it would be when my rabbit (Fluffy) died. My rabbit wasnt even sick at that point in time, nor was he that old....nevertheless I felt that 2am on a school night was a perfectly good time to get upset about such a thing. Oddly enough, I dont even think I was too upset about when we had to put him down several years later...
So, what can I take away from this story? It seems as though I am just hardwired to lay awake at night and think about things that dont matter, or things I cant do anything about, and that probably (no, almost certainly) are not going to be as big of a deal when they actually happen as I think they are going to be. Oddly enough, even though I know this, and acknowledge it, it doesnt actually stop me from doing it! And so, here I am again, unable to sleep while I try and come up with solutions to things that seem important now, but probably arent.
I have gotten alot of suggestions on things to do to help me fall asleep...things like special breathing exercises, tensing all the muscles in my body and then relaxing them one by one, putting peanut butter on my toes and letting them stick out of the end of the bed with the idea that I cant move otherwise I will get peanut butter on the sheets (ok, I just made that one up, but it could work, I suppose). And really, Ive tried it all and nothing works.
Focusing on breathing is just darn boring- it is too much like trying to think of nothing. Not to mention I tend to get carried away and my thought process starts to go a little something like this. The air molecule enters the external nares (known to common folk as the nostrils ;) ) and travels to the pharynx (sub divided into three parts: the nasopharynx, the oropharynx (not important here) and the laryngopharynx (posterior to the larynx)). Next it travels to the larynx (also sub divided into three parts supraglottis, glottis, and subglottis) by passing the epiglottis (the little flap that flips to cover the larynx when you swallow food so it doesnt go into your lungs). The air then travels to the trachea, then to the bronchi, then to the bronchioles, and finally to the alveoli where the oxygen diffuses into the blood and....
Are you still with me? Did it make YOU fall asleep? I am still awake....
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Much Ado About Nothing...
Here is a post about nothing in particular, which, luckily for you, is something I am really good at doing (writing about nothing, that is), especially at midnight when I should be sleeping but, for some reason unknown to me, cannot.
This is the second night in a row now that I just cant fall asleep. Unlike Charles who quite literally falls asleep within minutes of his head hitting the pillow, it takes me, on a good night, at least 45 minutes to an hour to fall asleep. Now, sometimes I am lucky and I stay asleep for the majority of the night, but other times I am up several times within the hour, and the only way I actually know that I have managed to drift off at all is because of the weird dreams I have.
I have this weird idea that perhaps if I STOP THINKING ABOUT EVERYTHING I might maybe, just maybe, be able to fall asleep more quickly. So I lay there, and flick an imaginary switch in my head and try to think about nothing. Now, I dont know if you know this, but thinking about nothing is actually more work than thinking about something, and so it is no wonder that within 15 seconds my brain hurts and my mind drifts back to whatever I had previously been thinking about. You know, really important stuff like: "What size of box am I going to have to buy to ship my geckos to Winnipeg?", "How many geckos should I put in each Tupperware for shipping, and what size of Tupperware? Does size even matter? Or is it like putting a dog in a kennel- where they should just have enough room to be comfortable, and dont need a couple extra inches because they cant do much with that space anyway?", "How much is this going to cost?", "I hate frozen cauliflower", and finally "Why is there a grand piano in the upper level of the Atlantic Superstore? and do people here know that I am referring to the Atlantic Superstore when I call it just Superstore since that is what it is called at home?"
No really. Why IS there a grand piano in the upper level of a grocery store? And who are the people that come to play it? So far I have witnessed it being played three times. Once by a man dressed in bikers leather, complete with chaps, playing classical music (he was actually very good!), the second time by a senior couple playing a duet, and the third time by some guy in a business suit and a baseball cap. Based on the variety of people playing this instrument (and their attire), common sense tells me they are not hired by the store (and they arent, I checked) and instead are just random every day people that come in to play a grand piano overlooking the produce section of Superstore in their spare time.
Oh Superstore, what next?
This is the second night in a row now that I just cant fall asleep. Unlike Charles who quite literally falls asleep within minutes of his head hitting the pillow, it takes me, on a good night, at least 45 minutes to an hour to fall asleep. Now, sometimes I am lucky and I stay asleep for the majority of the night, but other times I am up several times within the hour, and the only way I actually know that I have managed to drift off at all is because of the weird dreams I have.
I have this weird idea that perhaps if I STOP THINKING ABOUT EVERYTHING I might maybe, just maybe, be able to fall asleep more quickly. So I lay there, and flick an imaginary switch in my head and try to think about nothing. Now, I dont know if you know this, but thinking about nothing is actually more work than thinking about something, and so it is no wonder that within 15 seconds my brain hurts and my mind drifts back to whatever I had previously been thinking about. You know, really important stuff like: "What size of box am I going to have to buy to ship my geckos to Winnipeg?", "How many geckos should I put in each Tupperware for shipping, and what size of Tupperware? Does size even matter? Or is it like putting a dog in a kennel- where they should just have enough room to be comfortable, and dont need a couple extra inches because they cant do much with that space anyway?", "How much is this going to cost?", "I hate frozen cauliflower", and finally "Why is there a grand piano in the upper level of the Atlantic Superstore? and do people here know that I am referring to the Atlantic Superstore when I call it just Superstore since that is what it is called at home?"
No really. Why IS there a grand piano in the upper level of a grocery store? And who are the people that come to play it? So far I have witnessed it being played three times. Once by a man dressed in bikers leather, complete with chaps, playing classical music (he was actually very good!), the second time by a senior couple playing a duet, and the third time by some guy in a business suit and a baseball cap. Based on the variety of people playing this instrument (and their attire), common sense tells me they are not hired by the store (and they arent, I checked) and instead are just random every day people that come in to play a grand piano overlooking the produce section of Superstore in their spare time.
Oh Superstore, what next?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)