well, since someone else is probably considering nuclear fission and amatory fiction, i can probably just think about whatever.
I’m one of those people.
You know the ones.
The tossy-turny, rollovery, hmm I was just thinking-y, woo-it’s-warm-in-here, maybe-I-need-a-glass-of-milk-y, are-you-sleeping-already, I’m-not-ready-for-Monday-y, late-night-revelation-y, well… people.
When I climb into bed at night, my brain rumbles into overdrive, and I’m left lying awake until 2 am pondering the universe and world economics and old Magnum P.I. plotlines.
It’s much worse on Sunday nights, too.
I guess I’m mentally preparing for the week ahead, but not by making lists or setting out my agenda or doing anything rational. No, I’m just boggling at life. And not necessarily important aspects of life, either.
Like, only moments ago, trying to remember the names of the Hanson brothers (no, not the band. From Slapshot.)
For hours.
People make all sorts of suggestions as to how I could slow things down in my agitated brain/heart/soul: prayer, essential oils on my pillow, yoga, sleep breathing, sleep hygiene, herbal remedies, prescription drugs… you name it.
I suppose some of them might have an impact. But this has been the Nature of Meg since I was two years old and yelling, “HEY, WHAT YOU GUYS DOING IN THERE” through the wall when I was supposed to be a sleeping cherub in my crib.
Can it be cured? Hard to say.
I’ve never been a cherub.
More of a town crier.
And that’s fine, I think.
Except that I have nowhere to PUT all this stuff. I just have to let it juggle around in my psyche until I finally wear myself out or experience the cosmic release valve that is Morning Coffee.
So.
Want some?
For you, the last 15 things I thought about. Feel free to think about them, too, or just marvel at the fact that I’d do this instead of ZZZZZ…
1. If my love of fabric softener is leaving a buildup on the fibres of my clothes (well, okay, I already know it is, I’m just thinking about how I should STOP THAT.)
2. Why soda is always “lemon-lime” and not just “lemon” or “lime.”
3. How people actually make it through an episode of Survivor without wanting to send Mark Burnett a bill for their time.
4. Haircut or new boots? Haircut or new boots? Haircut or new boots?
5. Why the “vibrate” setting on my phone is so violent my roommate can hear it rattling on my bedside table through the wall when I get late-night texts (and this is a girl who can sleep through Eric and I debating about U.S. politics and Cirque de Soleil from three feet away.)
6. Why sometimes my bed is so incredibly comfy, and sometimes it makes my back ache.
7. How anyone convinces themselves that the way to get people to agree with their ideas is to belittle everyone else’s ideas mercilessly.
8. Why it is that I radically prefer non-fiction writing to fiction writing, even with a Lit degree under my belt (or hoop skirt, as it were.)
9. What the purpose is behind junebugs, the Electoral College, Dr. Phil, the return of legwarmers, or Dancing with the Stars.
10. If I put my charitable dollars in the right places this past year.
11. How to very quickly master the art of baking bread, with as few failed loaves as possible.
12. What I *really* want in a lifemate.
13. Which city I will end up moving to, when I eventually move. Which I think I will. One day.
14. How one can learn to excel at following diagrammatic instruction.
15. What it will take for me to become a better friend.
And you?
January 7th, 2008 at 12:02 am
The quote more properly is… “Hey you guys! ‘Utchu doin’ in there?” ,and you were not even 1 year old the first time you yelled it.
January 7th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Not so much an answer to what I think you’re *really* asking as a suggestion to improve your sleep habits, but you’ve got a swell iPod touch so if I were you I’d be taking all this down as notes in it (jailbreak it, devise some hack for the contacts app to use it as a notes app, or use an online notes service such as Google Notebook) and clearing my mind of it all for a bit. I find I sleep better when I offload the tornado from my mind to something else I can refer to later. Just my two cents.
January 7th, 2008 at 7:57 am
I’ve heard that before too, what Chris was saying about writing all of these things down at the time. I’ve also heard that if you lay in bed longer than an hour unable to sleep, you should get up and do something pleasantly monotonous like knitting or reading a magazine. This, of course, only leads to me knitting until 4:38 when I realize I should have been sleeping all that time or pretending to at least.
Of course you’d like to be moving to Calgary eventually! I could help you get to know a whole new transit system, with endless possibilities for dancing down the street to your bus stop, and fewer frozen puddles. Also? Our bus drivers drive more gently, I SWEAR. I nearly ended up in the lap of someone else when I took the bus in Vancouver. Simply out of control! At least I was laughing, not sure about the lady I nearly crushed.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:34 am
That’s kind of what this post was, Chris. :)
The scary thing is, when you write all the time, writing more just starts your brain up again, and then another hour is shot while I reshape the thoughts I just noted down, and wonder if I should be thinking of them in a certain way, and… yeah.
And if I get out of bed, I’m hooped. Totally hooped. :)
The only thing that really seems to work is talking on the phone until I get drowsy, which takes about half an hour. But it has to be with someone comforting and interesting that I like listening to and know well.
Those people aren’t generally up then.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
i’m also a member of the awake-all-night-club, and i have tried everything from meditation to medication to sleep better. nothing works. i am destined to be an insomniac. it sucks.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
About the fabric softener thing, my husband doesn’t like to use it because of the build up on our towels and because he read it can damage the fabric. About a month ago, we decided to try the “home remedy” we’d heard about — using distilled white vinegar in the rinse. It works, our clothes get softer with each wash and there is no vinegar smell left behind. I put about a 1/2 cup (a little more for larger loads) in the “softener” tray of our washer, but you could also use one of those fabric softener balls. I think it’s also making less cat hair cling to our clothes.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
No knead bread recipe:
http://www.slashfood.com/2006/11/16/no-knead-bread-takes-over-the-world/
January 14th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
remember when sprite advertised “limon”. those were the good ole days.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I feel your pain. I’ve been going through the same thing for years, but to a much worse extent the last few weeks. I took a sleeping pill one night last week, and woke up in the morning with a migraine and puked all day… what gives? I hear you’re supposed to write down things you’re worried about or thinking about, but I always just end up flicking the light on and off twenty times, thereby making myself more awake than before. Sigh. I have no solution for you; I can only commiserate.