Monday, December 28, 2009

Who Needs Sleep?

There have been many nights, recently, where I have woken up, very late or very early depending on who you are, with thoughts running through my head.

Most of the thoughts have to do with stories. Ideas for characters or plots or "interesting" developments. My brain wants me to write them down, somewhere. It's not important if I ever use the stuff, what's important is that it gets out of my head.

Of course, I never do write the stuff down. It's usually two or three in the morning and that is not a good time to turn on a light and either hunt down paper and pen(cil) or turn on the computer and wait for it to boot. Not a good time at all.

I hate my job enough, as it is, and I ask myself why I'd want to add being extremely tired to an already stupid, if not rotten, day?

And then there was last night. My brain fired off at around 2:30AM. I rolled over and tried to sleep, but my brain wouldn't shut up. It just kept rattling things off and then making connections with those things and then leaping to other ideas. It was quite a pain in the cortex, let me tell you.

I remember looking at my clock at 2:45, 2:53, and 3:01 before I got up hoping that some water would help. I stumbled to the kitchen, pulled the water from the fridge, poured half a glass, drank, then, with more confidence, stumbled back to bed. I climbed in at 3:04, put my head on my pillow, closed my eyes, and was once again bombarded by my brain.

At 3:16 I decided that maybe I had to pee and went into the bathroom. I didn't.

At 3:24 I thought maybe I was too hot, pushed back a cover, and started to shiver. Maybe just one leg out? That got me one cold leg.

I tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable and eventually did drift off, but I do remember looking at the clock and seeing 4:03, 4:29, and 5:12.

When my alarm went off and I climbed out of bed to start the process of starting my day, I decided that maybe it would be better to turn on the fucking computer or search for god damned pen(cil) and paper. At least I'd be doing "something."

7 comments:

geewits said...

Always take your own advice. But maybe it was the moon or something because I pretty much slept like that last night too.

AE said...

Open notebook by side of bed. Pen clipped thereto.

ticknart said...

Geewits -- Not the moon. Sleeping like that has been going off and on since October. It's just that the other night was the worst one so far.

AE -- I know. I know. The main problem is the turning on of the light, the searing pain as eyes adjust, and the distinct possibility of having great trouble falling asleep again after.

Still, it's better than the known alternative. Probably.

geewits said...

Try writing it in the dark then. If nothing else, it might be funny as hell the next day.

AE said...

Nightlight?

Johnny Logic said...

My sympathies.

Personally, I have a policy-- if I can't sleep, I get up and do stuff until I feel tired and then try again.

ticknart said...

Geewits -- Maybe it'd look like some alien language.

'Nony -- Thanks for the spam.

AE -- Then I wouldn't get to sleep in the first place, but I know what your going for.

Johnny -- When this sort of thing happens, I feel tired. My brain just won't shut off and let me sleep.