Sunday 16 August 2009

Confessions Of A Teenage Insomniac

"You've made your bed, so sleep in it..."

Yeah, I bloody wish.

So, here I am, bright eyed and bushy tailed after my first insomnia-related all-nighter: went to bed at 12, gave up and got up at 6:30. Not a wink of sleep between those hours.
It's been getting notably worse since the return from Slovenia; a sleeplessness (real word? Don't know) that used to get me, say, every other- or third- night has now been every singe day I go to bed. Usually it's just a few hours, I end up dead to the world anyway. Not last night.

So I'd been to my mum's friend's boyfriend's (still with me?) party. It wasn't the liveliest of dos and the worst thing I managed was being pressed to try a mouthful of flat Gin and Tonic (simply spontaneous, right?)

Cept that night I go to bed and lie awake for six and a half hours, occasionally breaking the boredom with a chapter of the phenomenal graphic novel The Watchmen (read it.)

However, it wasn't as fun as you might think. In fact it was pretty shit.

There comes a time when you realise, four hours into your reluctant all-nighter, that if you don't fall asleep now you will feel this way for the rest of the day ahead. Feel like what? you ask.
Like you are totally and blissfully asleep every time your eyes shut to blink. Then, as they open again, you're utterly and frustratingly wide awake.

Another terrible stage is when your brain splits. Not literally of course, although by this time of the night you're doing very well not to have a headache of some kind. But I do not know whether it's a human reaction to the solitude, or simply proof that I personally am insane. However, the brain starts talking back to itself.
"Don't be soft," part of your mind says. "You're obviously not tired or you'd be asleep. Logical, no?"
"But I AM tired," another bit of your brain argues. "If you'd just shut up, maybe we'd get some rest."
A third part of your consciousness is wondering vaguely how this is even possible; the brain is one organ designed to control, help (and hinder) it's host body. It shouldn't be sniping at itself and referring to itself in the first person.
A still further bit of the mind is ignoring the other three all together, caught up in a desperate personal struggle to dispel the highly annoying (and insanely catchy) voice of the lead singer of the All American Rejects from looping over and over to only it's tortured ears... while simultaneously wondering if said singer is really Kermit the frog (listen to Her Name Rhymes With Mindy, then listen to the green Muppet’s voice: IDENTICAL).

Later on in the night/morning, you don't know whether it's from the hours and hours you have spend staring into darkness, or the fact the sky is finally beginning to lighten, but forms of you familiar things start to take shape. Then, every time you blink, as well as being ridiculously disappointed when your eyes open, you are somehow always surprised that the room you are in is lighter than the inside of your eyelids.

You think about a lot of things in a tiny amount of time when you're in the same place for hours at a time. A couple of the things flashing through my mind were:
● My Year 11 Media Project ● The difference of the words Glamour and Glamorous ● The fact the Cullen's aren't actually real vampires ● The fact I really need to post a blog soon ● What the bloody hell time is it? ● Oh, only five minutes past the last time I checked ●

4 comments:

  1. Aww bless ya... I've always kind of wanted to be an insomniac. I have had one night of sleeplessness (yeah i think its a word) in my life and it wasn't so bad. I kind of liked it actually. I mean, here (spain) I set my alarm for 4 in the morning so i can get up (i have done this once before, on my singular insomnia night) climb out the window and go sit on our neighbour's roof, without being screamed at by a ridiculously overprotective mother who is getting MORE protective by the day... how that is possible i dont know. She throws a hissy fit when i drink coffee or tea. Anyways, every night i set my alarm for the early hours and tell myself you WILL get up tonight because think how great it is when youre on the roof. And every night i wake up at 4, groan, switch my alarm off and go back to sleep. It sucks. My will completely evaporates. I WANT to be an insomniac. :( xx

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  2. Nah, not with ya on this one Rachel
    During my big insomniac period (2005ish-2008)
    I would lie back, try to get to sleep and then before i knew what was happening, it was 12 - 2- 4- 6- time to get up.
    Nowadays I just get in at 4am and wake up at 4pm
    xD
    Also, Rachels friend natasha, you do NOT want to be an insomniac, It's horrible, and after a while even the strongest sleeping pills stop working

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  3. Must be different for everyone then. And sleeping pills make the body start to depend on taking them to fall asleep so my mum won't let me near them. Not that I could swallow a pill anyway o_O

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  4. haha, not just the dependancy though, the more you take them the less they work

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