illusionofjoy | Sleepless in Potsdam (Reply)

If I didn't have class tomorrow morning, I would feel confident in staying up all night, worrying not about when sleep came. As the case is, I have to be up at 6:00AM, which is less than four hours away at this point. Sleep experts (apparently those people paid to sleep on the job - haha) state that one should not think about the worries of the day while lying in bed, as it makes it more difficult to drift off into a blissful slumber. Apparently these same experts forgot to take into account how few other distractions there are when one is lying in bed in the middle of the night. Devoid of anything but the immediate surroundings, my mind is free to think about how annoying that light pollution is coming through in slits via my blinds. I can pontificate for hours about human foibles and the general stupidity of our society. The noise from my little analogue alarm clock starts to become louder and louder as there are no sounds to distract me from its incessant ticking. When I pry my concentration away from that, I'm free to try and quantify human emotion (failing each time, mind you).

I can't sleep at night. It's too peaceful and quiet so as any little disturbance, internal or external, seems a hundred times more significant than it really is. I find it so much easier to doze off during the day, when all the noise melts into a dull roar and sleep blocks it all out.

I don't know that any of this makes sense. I wish I had some alcohol - that always knocks me right out as soon as I'm horizontal.