We all have times of sleep interruption and I decided that when it next happened to me I would write down how I felt to fully appreciate the importance of sleep. This is what I found.
For one reason or another, my sleep has been disturbed for the last week. Sometimes it was a late night, or I get to bed on time only to be woken during the night possibly due to noises outside, the cat or my partner. Then there were the nights when I simply just could not get to sleep. Anyhow, all I know is that I’m struggling right now to remember back a week as I am deprived of sleep.
So this is the situation. I have had some sleep. I would say, about 4-5 hours on average for the last week. I need more sleep than this. How do I know this? Because right now this is how I feel:
- I am currently working at half speed. Everything today is taking twice as long as normal.
- My attention span is very low. I keep drifting off. One minute I’m here at the screen typing the next… well… I’m still here physically, but mentally I’m miles away and I wasn’t even aware it had happened.
- My brain feels fuzzy and muddled.
- I cannot concentrate (have I already said that?).
- Very low motivation -- in fact I’m not sure if I have any at all.
- My eyes feel heavy, as does the rest of my body, thinking about it.
- Reading is hard going.
- I have no commitment to any task.
- Even writing this list I am struggling to define my symptoms.
- I feel light headed.
- Oh yeah, also slightly nauseous.
I used to think these symptoms were a hangover -- now I know otherwise!
I have also recorded some behaviours that were out of the ordinary. I probably would have recorded more, but I think I forgot this was part of my task. It was just small stuff. I made myself a coffee and let the coffee pour over the cup, because I had drifted off. Went to check my email -- clicked on ‘new’ instead of ‘send and receive’. I first became aware of it when I saw a new window was open -- “eh? Why’s that there?” Then there was the book I was going through and found myself sat reading the wrong page.
Not that crazy or disturbing, but hardly normal behaviour for me. I am a firm believer in people controlling their lives and personal responsibility. Yet here I am saying, who opened that new email window? Scary to think it made me feel like I wasn’t in control. We worry about drugs and alcohol but I have to say how disconcerting it is to be feeling and behaving like this solely because of not enough sleep.
I am lucky. I did not have to go out anywhere into the world today feeling like this. I think perhaps this is a good thing. Then I think, how many others out there had a disturbed sleep last night?
For now I will end by saying do what you can to get a good night’s sleep because who knows what you may end up doing. If in doubt, try the exercise for yourself; you may be surprised by the results.
Copyright Julia Barnard 2006
Julia Barnard is a professional counsellor living in Adelaide, Australia. She provides an online counselling service through her website http://www.makethechange.com.au. Julia also writes articles for the website aimed at enhancing well-being and promoting good mental health.
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