Sleep


sorabji.com: What have you failed to do?: Sleep
THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016).

By Pilate on Saturday, April 7, 2001 - 07:31 am:

    I've had so many things on my mind lately. I've been working too much. I'm not at home as often as I'd like to be, and then when I finally get there I'm worried about a thousand different things and I find it pulling my attention away from my family. I've got some real nail-biting stuff going on, things that have my concern levels shooting through the roof. In short, I'm stressed out. So last night I just decided to make a conscious effort to turn off the "worry machine"......the weird internal mechanism that's keeping me stressed. Pull the plug and try to relax.

    But I started worrying again.

    My kid sees me sitting there exhausted and worn out. Then he suddenly announces that I'm being selfish. This kind of shocks me and I ask him why. He says that I'm always providing emotional support for everyone but then I won't let anyone else care for me in return. So I'm hogging all the emotional support in the house by giving it endlessly but not taking any back. Brendan either has the world's strangest outlook on life or he's a fucking Zen master. He fixed me a drink and told me that I was in his hands. That he was a self-appointed Doctor of Relaxology. He put on some soft music and just started quietly talking with me, picking my brain. My lover began talking with me too and I just found myself feeling as if my life had been saved by these weird wonderful people.

    I finally just began fucking babbling, telling them the whole litany of shit that's been freaking me out. I should've done this earlier. They surprised me by actually coming up with a few solutions. Then I realized what a jackass I've been, sitting there actually being shocked that my own family is coming to my aid and furthermore managing to think their way out of the box. It dawns on me that I really haven't been giving them jack shit for credit.

    I haven't been giving my lover credit as a father or a businessman or much of anything else. I'm trying to pull all this weight myself without realizing that while I'm running around stressing out there's somebody in the background who's gently and quietly keeping the whole show running WITHOUT making a big production out of it. And I haven't been giving my kid enough credit as...well, anything. I've been so terribly worried about him lately but the things I'm worrying about probably aren't even the right issues. Like I'm sweating the small shit while the really big stuff is floating right past me. I often forget how GOOD Brendan is. How little trouble he gives me.

    I love my family so much.

    They're at home, tucked safely into their beds. I'll join them soon. But I still can't sleep. Insomnia's been eating me alive. I'm dazed and staggering. Sleepy to the point of illness but still can't crash. But that's a lesser point. The main point is that my family has saved my ass again and again, and I love them very much.


By Dougie on Saturday, April 7, 2001 - 11:43 am:

    Sorry to hear about your insomnia problems, Pilate, but I just woke up from the greatest night of sleep. Usually, when my girlfriend's here, we both toss and turn, and the vertical blinds blow all over place making noise, and there's traffic outside all night long, and the cat's a pain in the ass, and when we wake up, we usually feel like we've each only slept 15 minutes, but I took 2 nyquils for a bad cold I've had last night, and it was raining out the entire night but not windy, and she was gone, and the cat behaved, and I slept like a log for 10 hours straight. Finally, I feel like I made a tiny dent in reclaiming some of my sleep deprivation.


By semillama on Saturday, April 7, 2001 - 12:27 pm:

    Love them alcohol.


By agatha on Saturday, April 7, 2001 - 02:12 pm:

    pilate, tell us about your work troubles. maybe it will help.


By Nate on Saturday, April 7, 2001 - 06:48 pm:

    i think something's in the air. maybe the solar storms. i've not slept much in quite a while.


By Antigone on Sunday, April 8, 2001 - 04:04 am:

    A little valerian and kava kava is all you need, d00d. It looks like everything else is convered. :-)


By Rhiannon on Sunday, April 8, 2001 - 09:47 pm:

    I haven't slept well lately, either. Nightmares. Scary.


By Nate on Sunday, April 8, 2001 - 10:17 pm:

    THIS TISSUE SMELLS LIKE BRIE CHEESE.


By Antigone on Sunday, April 8, 2001 - 10:27 pm:

    scrotum


By Pilate on Monday, April 9, 2001 - 02:35 am:

    I managed to get a little sleep today. Unfortunately it came at a really weird hour. I have to be up early tomorrow, so I'll try to go home and try to snooze again soon. I'm at Crimson's place and we're cooking some breakfast (at 1:30 AM). After we eat, we're both going to crash.

    Weird dreams must be epidemic or something. Crimson's told me about some odd ones recently and my kid is being plagued by nightmares. Brendan wakes up screaming a lot. He can't help it and he's always so terrified it breaks my heart. Being awakened at 4 o' clock in the morning by a screaming teenager is always kind of festive. Sometimes before Brendan fully awakens from his nightmares he'll be kicking and fighting, trying to defend himself from whatever's attacking him in his dreams. The boy is a bit frail in build but never underestimate the power of a flailing teen. It's like he's possessed. He's kicked the crap out of me a couple of times. When he wakes up and realizes what's happening he's extremely apologetic.

    Some of my work-related problems are getting better already. It's just that in one of my jobs, someone abruptly quit and another went on leave of absence and I've basically been doing the work of three people (for the pay of one). My lover may be getting transferred in his job which means we'd be moving. Brendan's very stressed about this and I can't say that I blame him. Although Brendan's being homeschooled, he's got a close-knit group of friends now. In a social sense, it's almost as if they're his classmates. They're all in a similar age range with roughly the same interests. It would be as disruptive to move him away from his friends as it would be to abruptly move a kid who's actually in school (in fact, I think it'd be worse). A kid at a new school will eventually make friends. Brendan's very dependent upon the friends he's got and doesn't make friends easily due to being agoraphobic. When talking about issues like moving, it's not just about US anymore. We've got a young 'un to consider.


By Rhiannon on Monday, April 9, 2001 - 09:10 am:

    What Brendan experiences during sleep sound like night terrors. For some reason, you're not supposed to wake someone up out of that state. (I think it makes them more violent.)


    For three nights in a row, I've woken up at 3:30, stayed awake for an hour, fallen back asleep, and then dreamt that I've woken up again. In the dream, I'm lying in my bed and I notice I can see with my eyes shut. I can see all the furniture, etc. in the room but I feel as though my eyes are closed. Then, suddenly, there's someone sitting on my back (I'm lying on my stomach) and his hands are around my throat, pulling me upwards, and I can hear growling. I can't move at all. I start saying a prayer and I (really) wake up in the middle of the prayer.

    The first night it happened, I ran into the kitchen where my roommate was doing her laundry (she hasn't been able to sleep well, either) and asked her to sit with me until I calmed down. The other two times, I've just said Our Fathers until I felt sleepy again.

    I wish I could put into words how terrified I feel during the dream. I hope to God it doesn't happen again tonight. I need my sleep.


By patrick on Monday, April 9, 2001 - 12:18 pm:

    wow.

    3:30. isnt that the witching hour? or would it officially be 3:00?

    neither of us have slept well. as i mentioned last week, dreams have been unsettling.

    fucking cats and vertical blinds...ihear ya dougie...a xlophone effect when they jump up to watch birds. The birds like to taunt my cats. They sit on the A/C box literally inches away from the cats and the cats sit there, make strained meows and shake almost violently. Brute force just below the surface, behind the glass.

    yeah.

    im almost out of pot too.

    damn


By Dougie on Monday, April 9, 2001 - 12:30 pm:

    Actually, it's the wind that blows my blinds, Patrick. My cat is too old and fat to jump up there. She's a pain in the ass by always wanting to lay on my pillow, or stretching out at the bottom of the bed so I have to curl up my legs, or starting to wash herself (rather vigorously) at 2:00 am. Or when I'm sleeping on my stomach, laying on my back like she's riding a horse.

    Does anybody else sleep with one leg and one arm out of the covers? I've done this ever since I can remember. And it's especially a must in sleeping bags. Even if it's freezing out, I still have to start out this way. On my back. With the crook of my right arm over my eyes.


By Pilate on Friday, April 27, 2001 - 08:05 am:

    Still riding the insomnia train.

    I've got an extra kiddo in the house now but that's not what's keeping me up. Brendan and Dorian have been behaving themselves. It's been interesting watching them in action. Makes me feel young and goofy. Makes me wish I'd had someone cool to date when I was 15. I kinda went from innocence to adulthood with no intermediate step (dating) in between. Makes me want to do silly, innocent stuff like the kids are doing now......long walks, telling silly little jokes, holding hands.

    We might go out to the woods together this weekend for a while. Let the kids hang out with Crimson and/or Pug while we go take a long romantic walk in the forest and get eaten up by mosquitoes.

    It's fun to watch the kiddies going steady. It seems like such fun that (even though I'm engaged to him) I asked Trace to go steady with me last night. He said "yes". I've never gone steady before. I'll have to take him on a date this weekend to celebrate. Maybe even a double date with the kiddos so they can celebrate their relationship too.

    But now that I'm going with Trace we'll have to start making out and stuff.

    We've both been so involved with work and other hum-drum shit that romance has suffered a bit. We're still getting along great, no problems there. Just not having quality time in bed as often as we should. Trying to make ends meet has a slight dampening effect on the libido.

    Which is probably the REAL reason I'm not sleeping.


By Kalli on Friday, April 27, 2001 - 09:55 am:

    Ooooh don't tell me this stuff...

    I'm about to venture into the world of living with someone, and as excited as I am about sharing my life with someone else (I've backed away from this vulnerability and dependency every single time I've come close to it.) I'm also terrified.

    I'm the type of person who needs to keep the excitement in her relationships. This doesn't mean hang on to the infatuation...but there has to be something. Once I get too comfortable..to the point that the romance isn't really anything but a friendship with an occasional fuck, I run. With Rex, I've got the excitement. I just hope when he moves here, we'll be able to keep it to some degree.

    We have to.

    I don't ever want to be boring.

    Grr.

    I'm in a mood. I just woke up and had a dream about someone I miss, and it's made me a little bit sad and a little bit remorse. I need breakfast.

    Pilate, isn't there a way to just say "Hey we need this?" in the midst of everything and do it? To keep the romance?

    Tell me there is.

    Or maybe I'm idealizing.


By patrick on Friday, April 27, 2001 - 01:01 pm:

    don't mistake comfort for boring.


By Pilate on Friday, April 27, 2001 - 01:21 pm:

    There IS a way to say "hey, we need this". Sometimes it dawns on us that we're in a rut and we'll do something fun and spontaneous to pull ourselves out of it. The excitement is still there for us. The relationship is solid. But after living with someone for a while things do tend to settle down into a domestic routine. You get to really know the person. You'll see all kinds of things you never would've seen while just dating. The initial excitement might seem to wane a bit as you sit there with your lover balancing a checkbook or making a grocery list. Your lover will be washing the dishes while you're out repairing the car, stuff like that. But there's even a weird contentment in all of that. I know it probably sounds dumb, but there's almost some excitement in the non-excitement. It's the satisfaction of knowing that you can work together and address the small issues as well as the large ones. You know that your lover is hot but he's also capable of cooking lunch or painting the walls. It's just another facet of the relationship. There's some real satisfaction in knowing that you and your lover, as a unit, can take care of business in addition to driving each other crazy in bed.


By Kalliope on Friday, April 27, 2001 - 03:39 pm:

    I keep telling him he's sexy when he does the dishes....

    He seems to like that.

    I'm just worrying. (Hi. I'm an overanalyzer!) I always swore I wouldn't live with someone again until I was absolutely sure. I'm not absolutely sure...but there's also this other feeling that knows he's not going anywhere..

    I'm frightened and thrilled at the same time to be able to surrender a little of that toughness I've always clung so tightly too.

    Does that make sense?


By patrick on Friday, April 27, 2001 - 04:08 pm:

    i wish nico would tell me im sexy when im doing the dishes.


By Slothrop on Friday, April 27, 2001 - 11:10 pm:

    here's something for you all in regard to the sleep anomaly. while i was still in school, two very close friends of mine awoke basically at the same time due to bad dreams. one went outside, and saw this weird thing in the sky. bob said it pulsed. i dunno. i am aware of how blatently bullshit this sounds. i guess i am just trying to say that i agree that bad dreams come in waves for groups of people. like how the full moon anecdotally affects the number and intense freakyness of hospital emergency rooms visits.

    sleep is absolutely key. i have slept well of late, so maybe the government antenna that rises out of the ground periodically to broadcast submission and low level but distracting saddness during the early am hours is turned off in my area for now. i truly feel your lack of sleep. it is a true travesty, and i am sorry for you who suffer.


bbs.sorabji.com
 

The Stalking Post: General goddam chit-chat Every 3 seconds: Sex . Can men and women just be friends? . Dreamland . Insomnia . Are you stoned? . What are you eating? I need advice: Can you help? . Reasons to be cheerful . Days and nights . Words . Are there any news? Wishful thinking: Have you ever... . I wish you were... . Why I oughta... Is it art?: This question seems to come up quite often around here. Weeds: Things that, if erased from our cultural memory forever, would be no great loss Surfwatch: Where did you go on the 'net today? What are you listening to?: Worst music you've ever heard . What song or tune is going through your head right now? . Obscure composers . Obscure Jazz, 1890-1950 . Whatever, whenever General Questions: Do you have any regrets? . Who are you? . Where are you? . What are you doing here? . What have you done? . Why did you do it? . What have you failed to do? . What are you wearing? . What do you want? . How do you do? . What do you want to do today? . Are you stupid? Specific Questions: What is the cruelest thing you ever did? . Have you ever been lonely? . Have you ever gone hungry? . Are you pissed off? . When is the last time you had sex? . What does it look like where you are? . What are you afraid of? . Do you love me? . What is your definition of Heaven? . What is your definition of Hell? Movies: Last movie you saw . Worst movie you ever saw . Best movie you ever saw Reading: Best book you've ever read . Worst book you've ever read . Last book you read Drunken ramblings: uiphgy8 hxbjf.bklf ghw789- bncgjkvhnqwb=8[ . Payphones: Payphone Project BBS
 

sorabji.com . torturechamber . px.sorabji.com . receipts . contact