Something consequential came out of yesterday’s lack of sleep. For some reason, my body felt that 8 hours of sleep wasn’t enough, and I tossed and turned uncomfortably on the bed while the sun was streaming in through the window, and baking my back. Eventually I surrendered to solar power, and dragged myself awake.
I knew that I looked terrible, but the mirror made it worse. The eyebags were sagging terribly, and they felt like weights. I poked a finger up one of them to relieve the drag, and my body gave in to a huge sneeze. I did the same to my other eyebag, and I sneezed again. In this ragged state, I wasn’t really in the mood to do anything but steam at the reflex actions. To think I was going to meet my friends in the afternoon! How was I supposed to survive the day without toothpicks propping up my eyelids?
I slouched on the sofa lifelessly as the cartoon characters danced around energetically, which gave me a headache, so I narrowed my eyes, and squinted at the screen. The headache cleared, and I found myself looking at blurry moving masses with sounds. I pretended to concentrate on the show, since I’ve learnt from meditation articles that you must focus on something. And I focused… and focused… ZzzzZZZzzz.
I woke up again on a different time line. I know it must be so since my body was stiff from being in that position for so long. That half an hour was full of ice-cream, Internet nirvana and (guess!) my eyes didn’t feel weighty! I gave a yawn, and the alarm blared right next to me. That seemed to have an effect on me. I jumped up, and got dressed pretty quick, and hurried out to meet my friends.
However, the day soon loomed like a cloud under me. I felt as if I were floating above the floor, drifting to the train station. I abstained when one of them decided to play at one of the arcades. It sure felt surreal when I stared at the flashing (they weren’t dancing now) figures on the screen. He expertly picked off the enemy with his mock machine gun. The speakers went “rat-tat-tat-tat-tat…” and a beat started pulsing in harmony with that sound. That annoyed me very much, though I didn’t mention it.
My phone was timely (and probably kept my head from spinning) when I got an SMS from one of my friends who had spotted me earlier on. Meanwhile, the pressure to collapse proved too alluring, and I had to decide quickly on my next course of action.
Of course, by quickly, I meant the fastest possible response time in a state that bordered upon complete loss of control over consciousness. I decided to take The Caffeine.
I found the correct shelf at the 24/7 store, took a glance at the wide selection there, spotted a “double shot coffee”, and bought it without hesitation. In hindsight, this was probably the most foolish things I could have done, since I was caffeine sensitive. One cup in the morning could make me awake like a zombie at bedtime, so by far, I have consciously avoided coffee. But I downed the small 250ml can without hesitation.
The effect was instantaneous. The haze lifted, and the headache started fading away. And I could talk! I could have a conversation with my brain cogs turning for the first time that day! I was pretty amazed, and I went on to have fun the entire day.
8pm, when I reached home, the weights automatically hooked themselves to my lids, and I collapsed on my bed, exhausted. I turned, expecting to lose consciousness any moment, and enter the sweet oblivion of the dream world. A few minutes later, I reached around my back to give it a good scratching. Sometime later, I curled into a foetal position, and listened to the television in the living room. Half an hour later, having decided that I wasn’t making good progress falling asleep, I flipped through the papers mindlessly. You know, the feeling of sleepiness that keeps bugging you, yet you cannot fall asleep? That was it. Midnight came and went. I wasn’t close to falling asleep.
3am rolled by, and I got the first hint of impending knock-out. I think I did fall asleep, but I wasn’t entirely sure how. The night was entirely dreamless, and I was conscious of the fan purring in the background. I got up at 6.30 am, and read today’s newspapers in the living room. My parents were pleasantly surprised to see me up and about so early, but my only answers were mono-syllabic. I could form complete sentences if I made the effort, but it is like having to jump a wall in the mind each time I tried to talk, so I gave up pretty quickly, and went back to the bedroom to lie on my bed.
It was most horrible to feel full of sleep, yet starving at the same time.
I guess this shows that coffee and a good night’s sleep don’t mix. Right now I am feeling the same as yesterday morning, but I am not going to do anything about it this time. I hope that by fighting the desire to sleep until bedtime, I will actually be able to fall asleep!
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