I am an insomniac.
Some of you may be thinking, What's insomnia? Well, my friend, according to Google, insomnia is habitual sleeplessness or inability to sleep. It can be diagnosed and you can receive prescription sleeping pills or whatever from a fancy doctor if that's what pleases you. You can look up remedies, "schedules designed to cure insomnia," bedtime yoga or even products designed to help you sleep, like this headband. You can read article after article on 5 Easy Ways To Make Sleep A Priority In College, How To Fall Asleep In Under A Minute or whatever else you can find.
Or you can suffer in silence with the occasional complaint and live your life the way your abnormal brain wishes you to. That's the one I stick with because those articles and remedies haven't quite worked out for me.
The thing about having insomnia is that you tend to have a lot of extra time, but not enough mental or physical energy to do the things you really should be doing with that time. Sometimes I lie in bed at night practically yelling at myself because I have so many things to do, but I just can't focus long enough to do it. By the time it reaches 1 a.m., my brain is fried and begging for some rest. The problem is I can be exhausted to the bone with my eyes drooping, but the second my head hits that pillow, it's like the little person that lives in my head stands up and starts banging pots and pans together while screeching like a banshee. Something always wakes me back up even when I'm dead on my feet.
And once sleep finally decides to pay me a visit, one of two things always happens: 1. I wake up at least once every hour, or 2. I fall into such a deep sleep that I have trouble waking up the next day no matter how many hours I actually sleep. I typically hear others with insomnia suffer more from the first option, but more often than not I fall victim to the second (which is why my lovely mother shared this creative device with me).
Most nights I find myself getting between two and five hours of sleep, but on my "recoup days" I can sleep between 10 and 15 hours, even though that's not really healthy, and wake up feeling like I haven't slept at all. I'm not going to pretend I know about sleep stages or cycles or any of that, but I do know that I'm not getting the good sleep. But since I have things to do at normal people hours of the day, I don't usually sleep that long.
So what do I do with all of that extra time that I can't really put to any good use? I'll tell you. Here are the things I do when I should be sleeping:
Read.
Write.
Deep-clean my bathroom because it's much quieter than whipping out the vacuum. (I'm a good neighbor; you're welcome.)
Organize my jewelry.
Color because I'm actually 5 years old (jk, I'm old and boring).
"What's that noise? Where's it coming from? Is that a person or just the pipes? There it was again! What is that!?"
Chew gum even though I'm not supposed to (TMJ is cruel).
Movies on movies on movies because Netflix is a life-saver and worth the $8.99 they take from me every month.
Listen to The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw on BBC.
Not laundry, even though I'm half buried in worn leggings and sweatshirts.
Spend six hours straight in the iMac lab in the Communications building attempting to complete projects (and if you want to look down on being a Comm major, you can check out the article my pal, Javier, wrote here or this one here by Paige DiFiore).
Read some more (that's why my list is so long).
Make my bed (again) because I don't like how it looks when it's messy or the blankets are all crumpled.
Respond to emails I was saving for the next day.
Wash my dishes.
Try to remember and write down the homework that's due soon because I'm literally the worst at using a planner or agenda.
Switch out my wax melts scent (I have Cupcake by ScentSationals on right now).
More movies on movies on movies.
Send emails I forgot to earlier or ones for things I think of at 4 a.m.
Go through the pictures on my phone.
Clean my earrings because I'm sort of a germaphobe when it comes to certain things.
Get lost in the extreme depths of Tumblr (it's scary in there, so be careful).
Use a ridiculous amount of sticky notes for no good reason other than to write my shopping and To Do lists over and over again.
Find that hair tie I thought I lost but it was just hiding under my desk.
Brainstorm new ideas for the WVAC Radio website and other social medias (you can listen to our station here).
I think that pretty much sums it up. If you're an insomniac, I feel for you, buddy. If you're not, you should count your blessings. It's a tough world out there, kids, and you should take naps and get enough sleep at night if you're able to. Don't abuse your powers.
