I hate being an insomniac....[long]

It’s 5:10 in the morning. I have been awake since about 3:30, and I went to bed at 11. In between that, I must have woken up about 5 or 6 times. I have an 8:30 class, and I’ll be at school until about 5 or so. I commute, so I have about an hour drive up, and 40 minutes back (due to traffic and construction). Then I have homework. I have no less than 4 big projects due next week, and one the week after. I am exhausted. Midterms have been hell, and it hasn’t gotten any easier. I can feel it - I am making myself sick with lack of sleep, but I don’t know how to fix it. I haven’t slept well in about 6 years. Not even during the summer, or Christmas break or anything. I just DON’T BLOODY SLEEP! And right now, with the stress of not being able to sleep, piled onto the stress of school, my brain is fried. I know that I’m not thinking straight. I know that my body isn’t responding the way that it should. I know that my attention span is nil, and that my grades are being affected. I struggle to make it through each day because I’m tired, then my head hits the pillow, and BAM! wide awake.

#*@*%#(# @#*(#&(&@# &@(#@#(&@#(%&(@#@ (%@#&@#(&(#@&$(@#%&@#!!!

I worry whenever I have to commute (which is every weekday). I am beinginning to feel that maybe I shouldn’t be on the road, because I am so tired - it seems the only time my body seems to want to sleep is when I am driving. I have noone to share the drive with, either. It’s just me, dealing with the bloody construction and the bloody asshole drivers in this God-forsaken province who seem to think that just because they pass something - anything - on the side of the road, they have to fucking slow down. OOH, a dumptruck! BRAKE! OOOH a tractor! BRAKE! OHH a mailbox! BRAKE! OOOHHHHH look, honey - grass!!! BRAKE!!!

#*@*%#(# @#*(#&(&@# &@(#@#(&@#(%&(@#@ (%@#&@#(&(#@&$(@#%&@#!!!

My boyfriend is no help, either, tonight. For once in his bloody life he’s having trouble sleeping too (which as far as I’m concerned appears to be heaven in terms of how much sleep he’s getting right now) and my struggle to sleep appears to have affected him personally. Usually he takes me in his arms, and tries to calm me down, tries to get me to focus my mind and relax a little. Tonight though, he tells me “Fuck, its not as though I’m sleeping either, what the Hell do you expect me to do about it?”

When I can’t sleep, I CAN"T SLEEP! THere is so much noise in my head, so much static. I can’t control my body - I itch and twitch and it’s almost painful to try and lie down and rest. Usually he can make me relax enough to get some sleep, but refuses to do anything tonight. And the damn cat is whining about something - I love that cat, but its SO MUCH MORE STRESSFUL. Even now, I’m twitching and itching - I want to chop off my hair because it’s bothering me, and I know that that doesn’t make much sense, but its true. I’m alternating between hot and cold - when I was in bed, I was boiling with the blankets, and freezing without them, and now I’m putting a sweater on and taking it off every 5 minutes.

I don’t know if there’s anything wrong with me. I haven’t been able to find the time to go see a doctor, but I think it’s just all in my mind. I an a physchological insomniac, not because of something physical. I spoke to a doctor once about it, briefly, and he told me that it was pointless to try and do anything about it while still in university - that my schedule was too unpredictable to try and pinpoint the problem. But I know what the problem is. I DON’T BLOODY SLEEP!!!

I don’t know much psychology, but I seem to remember that there is a stage of sleep (REM?) where you actually get most, if not all, of the rest in a night. I am convinced that that’;s the stage of sleep that I don’t reach, because even when I do sleep, I never feel rested. It’s like I bounce right back out of it, and then its a waking nightmare trying to convince my brain that it needs to sleep. In the meantime, its all NOISE NOISE NOISE! I think about school, I think about the apartment, the cat, home, I start rocking back and forth to try and tire out my muscles, and I start to think about Fucking physics and energy consumption! It’s all NOISE!!! Like sitting in a crowded room with random bits of frustrating conversation flying around, and in the meantime the rest of the “sound” coming at you is like static from a TV. You can’t stop it, and you can’t ignore it. Even by kicking and thrashing, because I’ve tried that. It doesn’t work. The noise just doesn’t go away. I’ve tried focusing my mind on one single thing, but that doesn’t work either, at least not when i try it alone, because there;s always something in the back of my mind. My boyfriend gave me a “big green circle” to think about, and “he watches over me, and takes care of everything” but it doesn’t seem to work anymore. It’s better if my boyfriend talks to me, and tells me to concentrate, and think of the circle, and to relax, etc, but I can’t do it on my own. And he won’t help :frowning:

I should do homework instead of write this, but my mind is way too scattered. I want to sleep. I want to go back to bed, but even if I try, I have to get up in about an hour anyways. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to deal with this right now. I don’t have the time to go to the clinic, and I’m afraid of trying to take some sort of sleeping pills. I don’t want to rely on drugs to get me to sleep. I just want my brain to shut up, and let me rest. I just want the noise to go away. I hate being stressed, and I know school has a lot to do with it - I’m trying to get my senior thesis done while also writing reports and essays for a bunch of useless classes that the university seems to think are necessary (a whole other rant…), but it shouldn’t be much more stress than any other semester - and yet it is. This semester is depressing me so much, and the exhaustion is only adding to it. I have absolutely no patience left. If something goes wrong while I try to write something - like if my computer crashes - I go completely apeshit, and it takes me so much time to calm down enough to come back to the computer and keep working. Even if I make a typo - sometimes I you just keep hitting the wrong key a couple of times in a row - I get pissed off and start slamming the keyboard to get the letters out right.

I want to go home. I want to see my mother. but I’m, 850km away, in a province that I bl**dy hate, and I can’t go home until after exams. By that point, I beginning to think I’m going to have to be committed anyways, because this is driving me CRAZY!!! I DO NOT feel sane anymore. I don’t think straight, and I overreact to everything, and I stress and panic and don’t sleep, which just makes it all worse. It’s a vicious cycle that I don’t know how to handle. It just makes me want to scream - but it’ll wake up the neighbours. I’m already crying on and off.

I wish my boyfriend would have helped me. I wish someone could help me. I wish I didn’t have classes to go to, or that if I have to, that I could just go do them NOW and not have to drag it out all day long.

Its ten to 6. Fuck I type slow. My alarm goes off at 6:45. I feel like I could just pass out right now, but the stress of waiting for the alarm would keep me awake. I don’t want to go back to bed, though. I’m upset at my boyfriend. I know he has the right to sleep too, and to not have to be kept awake by me, but it’s so difficult to accept that when you feel like your brain is revolting against you, and you’re tossing and turning and burning and freezing and itching and twitching and feeling like there is nothing in the world that will allow you to sleep, ever again. He puts up with me a lot, and sometimes I don’t know why, but its hard when you need someone to help you sleep, and they aren’t there for you.

Even my cat has gone back to bed. EVeryone’s asleep but me.
Fuck.
I hate my body.
I hate my brain.

Will someone please just MAKE IT STOP???
MAKE IT STOP!!!

To hell with you sayin’ you don’t have time to go to a doctor, mnemosyne: GO TODAY!!! Do not hesitate, do not prevaricate, make it your top priority. Fellow busy-brained mad bastard insomniac here, though no way as bad as you are right now.

THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG, and if you don’t start putting yourself at th’ head of the list for some TLC soon, the really bad stuff will start to happen. I’m concerned, here. Do something. Go to get some help, and some decent advice on how to get a better grip on your life than you have now.

Wow.

My sympathies. Insomnia’s a bitch, no denying. I’d like to offer you some sage advice, some brilliant tip that you’ve not yet tried, that’ll make it all go away, but…

I can tell you that PM drugs, and sleeping pills, and booze are a waste of time and money. (well, for me, anyway) After 19 years, I figure I’m just never gonna get rid of it, m’self. I don’t even think I can remember what it was like before insomnia.

So if ye want someone to kvetch with, I can help a little, at least.

I can’t today. Ice Wolf. I have too many hours of class, and the clinic at school isn’t open evenings (I use my Student Health plan, so I’m a slave to their hours). And seeing as I have a midterm on thursday in one course, and I missed last lecture in another due to traffic (grrrrr), and then I have a lab…it’s just not possible if I expect to pass my courses. I might have time tomorrow, though. I managed to get about 20 minutes of sleep, so I’m feeling a little better right now, but it will be a struggle later on in the day. I just really needed to rant and bitch. I’ve been thinking about what might have “triggered” last night in particular, and I think it might have been the chocolate brownie. I’m sensitive to caffeine and sugar, and I went and had a brownie for dessert. I know it’s such a small thing to cause such a huge problem, but it might have something to do with it. I tend to try and control my diet in terms of avoiding high sugar/caffeine (even a cup of tea) late in the afternoon/evening, but sometimes you just have to indulge. Though if that was what caused this, maybe thats it for brownies for me… :frowning:

I don’t know. I should see a doctor. I have a long list of things that I should see a doctor about. My sprained ankle from September 10th that still hurts me (only 1st degree, too), my back from years ago (I have never gotten it looked at, and it hurts me too), as well as a couple of other minor things. I’ve had two migraines in the past week and a half, and I’m worried about getting another one. Though I know what pain reliever works for me, so its not an issue yet in terms of a prescription. And the dentist…totally unrealated, but I need to get a cleaning sometime soon. It’s been too long.

Thanks for your concern…seeing the length of my post, I’m amazed anyone actually sat down and read it all! I know I would have skipped it :slight_smile:

Gotta get something to eat, then get to school… :slight_smile:

When you get to read this – know that, while I’m not too okay with you not seeing a doctor today, tomorrow will be fine if that will make less of a load for your tired mind, body and soul, there. But DO, please, go tomorrow, okay?

Keep us posted when you can. Thoughts and best wishes and all that MPSIMS-type stuff, y’hear? :slight_smile:

I’m with Ice Wolf-get to a doctor soon!
I have the same problem myself-been awake since 11:30 PM myself, and my alarm goes off at 3:30. I blew it last night by not taking the advice I’m about to give you (foolishly thinking I could fall back to sleep, underestimating exactly how much my knee hurt after therapy). My doctor gave me Sonata-it’s a sleeping pill that really helps, especially if you can get to sleep but not stay asleep. The nice thing about it is that if you have to get up in 3-4 hours, this is a sleeping pill that will allow you to relax enough to sleep the few hours you have available, without being a zombie in the morning. Just that nap can be remarkably refreshing! Works alot better than Ativan, which has some serious walking dead side effects.
Good luck!

mnemosyne, you are in my thoughts and prayers. My insomnia’s never been as bad as yours, from the sound of it, but I know the hell it can be. I think nobody needs to explain to you why sleep deprivation is sometimes used as a method of torture.

So please go see a doctor soon. If it’s this bad, you need to be looked at about this, before you go bonkers - irregular schedule be damned. This has become the One Big Thing that you need to deal with, so treat it as such.

I’m an early-a.m. insomniac myself. Like singular1, I have a prescription for Sonata, which is one of the true wonder drugs of our time. It’s basically a 4-hour sleeping pill, +/- 1 hour, and it doesn’t leave you feeling woozy afterwards.

Took one at 2:50am this morning, with the alarm set to go off at 6am. It got me three hours’ sleep I probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, and no druggy hangover.

Part of my insomnia problem is like yours - when I wake up in the wee small hours to go to the john, by the time I’m back to bed, my mind’s awake and yammering. Sonata doesn’t shut it up, but it dampens the racket a bit, and it’s good at getting me to sleep if the yammering takes even a brief lull. (Sexual fantasies are good for this, IME. Masturbation is your friend. :)) I don’t take it every night - if I sleep past 4am on a weeknight, which usually happens, it’s too late to take one. But it’s nice to know that when I need it, it’s there.

I don’t know if Sonata is what you need - after all, IANAD. What you need first, IMHO, is for them to give you the sleep test where they wire you up overnight, and figure out what’s really going on. And for that, they need you chemical-free. But ask your doctor about Sonata - at the very least it might be a good stopgap to get you some sleep and sanity while you and the docs are figuring it out.

Fellow insomniac checking in. What worked (somewhat) for me, and I know it sounds facile but it really worked, was to stop getting upset about not sleeping.

Relax as much as you can before bed. Drink a little hot herb tea. Have as little stimulus as possible around you in bed. I often sleep with Hearos (awesome earplugs) in. Maybe a sleep mask will help.

Above all, don’t lie there in a cold rage, obsessing about sleeping. And don’t get up, whatever you do. It will take a while, but it’s possible you might join me in this kind of quasi-sleep that seems to be mostly REM sleep.

I sleep for a few hours, and then typically I spend most of the rest of the night drifting and dozing. I dream a lot, very vividly, I wake up a lot, and it’s often hard for me to distinguish between the two. In fact, I make no effort to.

Most importantly, I have stopped obsessing and getting pissed and freaked out about sleep and the lack of it. I notice my thoughts, let them pass by, and soon I’m off in TV land. Last night my last dream was about walking in the woods and seeing giant trout and giant water birds. It doesn’t feel like I’m sleeping much, but I’m resting, and getting enough rest.

It seems like the key for me was the earplugs and the acceptance of my insomnia. Soon after it ceased to totally dominate my life. Good luck.

mnemosyne, if you’re using your university health service to address this problem, it’s even possible that you may be able to postpone the midterm or something. Once they decide there’s really something wrong (and make no mistake, there is), often they can get all kinds of amnesty for students that would not otherwise be available. I had a professor just waive a midterm for me once after being contacted by Health Services - he just counted the relevant section of my final more heavily.

mnemosyne, I’m prone to insomnia myself. I found melatonin to be a godsend. It’s not a sleeping pill, so you can’t just pop one once you’re lying awake (you take it 0.5-1.0 hours before bed time at the same time each day), but it helps reset your sleep clock, so that you get and stay tired at bedtime. I always sleep really deeply when I take it.

I also found that once I couldn’t sleep, I should get out of bed, even if just for fifteen minutes. I fall asleep faster if I get up and lie on the couch watching bad tv for a little while, than if I just lay there and think about not sleeping.

But above all, go see a doctor. You may have sleep apnea or some other condition which can’t be fixed by changing your habits or taking melatonin.
Good luck!

Sorry to break it to you, Ice Wolf, but I didn’t see the doctor today. Not my fault, though - the walk-in clinic was backed up for at least 2 hours, and I did, quite frankly, have better things to do than sit and wait. I do have an appointment for 2:15 tomorrow (today - Thursday), if that makes you feel any better. In the meantime, here I am again, unable to sleep. I’ve tried for about 2 hours. It just isn’t working. I think I was almost asleep - beginning to relax at least, but then my asshat housemate came in and stomped around the apartment and slammed a kitchen cupboard or two and generally made an ass out of himself at 1 am, and that basically guaranteed that I will not be getting much sleep, if any at all, tonight.

Like the other night, I have an 8:30 class tomorrow. I plan on skipping it, though, because I have a midterm (worth 10% of my grade) at 10am, and I’m not ready for it yet. I’d study now, but I want to do something a little more relaxing. hopefully I can get an hour or two of sleep later. I know they say to not bother if you can’t get at least 3 hours, but I’ll take what i can get. I managed a half-decent night last night, but I think it was more because I passed out of exhaustion than for any other reason.

I just Googled a little on Insomnia, and I read a brief description of “Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome” - I plan on reading more about it, because this brief paragraph seems to be exactly what I’m suffering from. If I were able to follow my own schedule, and have no classes, work, etc, then I’m sure I’d be sleeping from 4am-noon or something, and up the rest of the time. My mind is just more - active - at night, even when my body is bloody exhausted.

I hope the doctor can help me tomorrow. I am ready to take sleep aids, especially right now as a short-term cure, because this is pretty acute, and its affecting my grades, likely my health, and even a little bit my relationship with my boyfriend. It’s not fair to him that he shouldnt be able to sleep because I can’t. I want a long-term cure, but right now…anything at all would be a miracle, I think!

I tried to avoid anything that might keep me awake toady - no chocolate brownie (I have some left), no tea, no pop. I drank some iced tea, though, and I think that that has caffeine, but I didn’t think of it at the time. The only alternative was water, and I didn’t want that with supper.

I ate supper a little late, though, because I had a night class. I got home at 9:30, and had supper, and I was done by 10:30. I tried to go to bed at 11:30. Maybe that has something to do with it. I’m digesting, and thats keeping me awake? Seems like overkill, though. Mere trouble sleeping would be a million times better than not sleeping at all.

I know the doctor is going to tell me to exercise more. I don’t know how I can manage that - I have way too much work to do right now. Maybe I’ll start taking the stairs in the apartment - though 5 flights is a lot at the end of the day, when you’re tired, and at the beginning, when you’re late for school. Even at school, I’m pretty sedentary, since all my classes are basically in the same building, as well as the lab I work in. And anywhere else I have to go is just one building over, so I don’t walk around campus much. Hehe although in first year, when classes were spread out all over the place, I used to HATE the hike - now I’m kind of wishing I did have to go to North campus once and a while! :slight_smile:

As for my diet - well, I do what I can. I’m not a Kraft Dinner kind of person - I like real meals, but they aren’t always balanced. I have the habit of skipping lunch, because I don’t always pack one, and I’m too cheap to buy something at school (5$ for a sandwich? No thanks!). Its a bit of a habit from waitressing too, though. When you work THROUGH meal times, you start getting used to grabbing a bite to eat when you can. I have started taking vitamins to help supplement my meals - do you think the Flintstones are causing insomnia? (I know, flintstones vitamins are for kids, but they taste good!)

I don’t really want to do a sleep study. I think all that will prove is that I can’t sleep well in a strange bed, without my boyfriend, and with electrodes attached to me! I itch at night enough as it is, I don’t think I could put up with that! They’d have to do a sleep study in secret, because just knowing that i’m being “watched”, even by a camera, would keep me awake for hours.

I suppose I’m keeping myself awake by thinking about what’s keeping me awake, but at least I’ll be prepared to answer questions tomorrow :slight_smile:

I really appreciate all of your concern and help - I’ve taken down the names of the meds you’ve suggested, and I will ask about them, and about taking a melatonin supplement. I’d like to go there more or less informed, and you’ve been a great help. Dopers are the best! I’ll definitely keep you posted!

No sweat, ** mnemosyne**. I’m just doin’ some long-distance, “don’t-know-you-but-care-how-you-are” nagging in this thread. You’ve got an appointment, you’re seriously looking at the problem and figuring it out – good on you! Very, very pleased to hear th’ progress. :slight_smile:

Take care.

Hi mnemoyne.
I know, like me, you have probably heard all the “solutions” but here’s the one that works (somewhat) for me. I still wake several times thru the night but this helps with the intial sleeping…Talk-back radio!!. Annoying enough to take your mind off your day…but mind numbingly boring enough to induce sleep.
Leave the radio on all night and it is a constant cure.
Like I said it hasn’t stopped my insomnia but , oddly, it seems to make it less annoying (I know I’m not awake anough at 4 am to ring a radio station ranting and raving about the govt…this makes me feel happily sleepy). Try it …it’s a cheap and drug free experiment at worst (if the boy friend complains there are earphones!)

Good Luck sleeplessness is hell

I’ve had insomnia from when I was 10 years old. I’m 35 now.

For the last 25 or so years I’ve been lucky if I get more then 4 hours of good sleep a night.

I know JUST where you are coming from.

I wish I could say it gets better.

I suffer from occasional insomnia attacks. These are mostly brought on by going to sleep too early or too late and made worse by the adrenaline from my violent or sexual fantasies and by tripping over not sleeping. I’ve tried out these tips on how to fall asleep:

  1. Don’t control your thoughts at all. Just let your mind flow and form dream-like confusing images. Eventually you’ll experience a dream-like dizziness and fall asleep.

  2. Don’t obsess about sleeping. Convince yourself that you don’t need to sleep, at least you are geting some rest. It’s true, BTW, you don’t need to sleep every night, I learned this in the finnish army.

  3. Relax your muscles one by one. Start from your toes and work your way up your legs, then relax your arms one muscle at a time, then your face and finally your torso. Talk to yourself in your mind: “I can’t move my toes. They feel warm and heavy. My toes weigh a ton.” Focus on your joints: “I can’t bend my anckle at all. My feet weigh a ton.” Do not move at all. Eventually you’ll feel paralyzed and perhaps even reach a self-hypnotic state.

  4. Take naps. When you go to sleep at night, there can be a lot of pressure on you, thinking that you must get some sleep as soon as possible. Just lie on the couch watching TV and allow yourself to fall asleep. There’s much less pressure. If you can’t get any sleep, you can always try again later.

  5. Don’t set an alarm clock when you don’t have to. When you don’t have to wake up in the morning there’s, once again there’ll be much less pressure to fall asleep quickly.

  6. Sleep in different places. When you go to bed, it’s possible that you’ll be thinking the same things that you did when you were there last. To a mind-loop insominiac this is even probable.

  7. Have your gf/bf/wife/husband caress you to sleep. Someone you trust caressing you will help you feel safe and relaxed. Besides, it feels great. When my ex-gf run her fingers through my hair at night I always fell asleep like a big baby.

  8. Build confidence in your sleeping ability. Don’t always “do it the right way”, get a little sloppy. Go to sleep too late, sleep in at weekends, have fantasies in bed. When you fall asleep regardless, you’ll find that it’s really a piece of cake.

None of these tips will work on everyone and trying to remember them all might keep you from sleeping. I know how hard this can be but I can’t stress it enough: Try not to obsess! And don’t obsess about obsessing, either. It’s also possible to obsess about obsessing about obsessing about…well, just nib all the obsessing in the butt is my advice.

I also find that caffeine can really exacerbate insomnia. I never have any caffeine after 3pm. That includes iced tea with dinner. (Sorry!)

You are probably going to have 50 different people tell you 50 different ways they cured their insomnia. But really, my situation was very similiar to yours. Long commute, part time jobs, college etc.

Exercise really helped. It tired my body out so that my it was control rather then my mind. I never could get my mind to shut up at night but if I went for a run during the day my body always overruled my mind at bedtime. I use to run/walk around campus during my breaks between classes. Even 15 or 30 minutes a couple of times a day helped.

Right now you are probably taking the right course though. See a doctor to rule out any major health issues and get a “quick fix” if he will give you one. After exams you can re-evaluate for a more “natural” solution.

Good luck.

P.S. No caffeine at all after the morning. Some people really are very sensitive to it.

Well, my doctor told me basically everything you’ve told me. I’ll try to squeeze more exercise in, and try different relaxation techniques. He told me to try an OTC pill first, before going into the prescription stuff. I bought some “Sleep-eze-D”, which apparently is Benadryl with a new name. I didn’t need it yesterday, and I don’t believe i’ll need it tonight (I tend to sleep better weekends, and I’m tired and going to bed in a few minutes), but if I have trouble during the week, I’ll try it.

if it doesn’t seem to work, of if I find I still need it way too often, then I should go back and see him and see if there’s something else that needs to be looked into.

I don’t know that I feel totally satisfied with my doctors visit, but not because of him. Basically I was so spaced out and wacky by the time my appointment rolled around (going into my 28th hour or so of non-sleep - I calculated it when he asked me how long it was), that I forgot to ask a lot of the things I wanted to ask about. If the OTC seems to help, though, maybe i’ll just tough it out until my regular checkup, which is in a month or two anyways (i think). As long as I can get SOME sleep, it’ll be better than this past week was, and I can deal with that.

Although even last night, I woke up often. Part of it might be that my entropic kitty (she causes chaos) decided at one point that she wanted to sleep on MY pillow, and I was too nice, and didn’t move her, and had to struggle to sleep without one…damn cat. :slight_smile:

And because this is the Pit, I’m just going to add another little rant about my drive home:

I live 45 minutes (with traffic) from the school I go to. It’s not usually a bad commute. This year, though, the fucking OntarioSuperBuild project has decided to shut down one lane each way, and dig big holes along the side of the road (thats all I can see that they are accomplishing). Great waste of people’s tax money. Also, there is a bridge going over the 401 next to a tiny little shittown which is ALREADY the worlds biggest bottleneck. They are “fixing” that bridge, which means that they park big trucks on it and move traffic cones around all the time.

So tonight I leave campus at 5pm. I get home at 7:15pm. Why? Because the idiots on the bridge decided it was great fun to “delay” traffic (read: not allow any to go through AT ALL) for 45 minutes so that they could move some dumptrucks back and forth for a while, and paint some lines. Yep. an HOUR AND A HALF to drive less than 1 km (from the time I got stuck in traffic, to the time I got off the bridge). I WAS SO ANGRY!!!

And then some moron almost drove into me because apparently my green light, and his red means that if he wants to turn right, he has right of way :rolleyes:.

I hate this province. I want to go home. :frowning:

I’d appologise for the hijack, but it;s my thread :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s 2:30 in the a.m.
I have to be up at 6.
I got 3 hours of sleep last night.

damn, insomnia is a bitch.
Oh, my insomnia haiku:
Insomnia blows,
Writing poetry all night,
I wish I could sleep.

:smiley:

I think my cat is beginning to conspire against me and prevent me from sleeping. She has perfected the art of sneaking onto the bed and stealing my pillow out from under my head, and then acting all cute and cuddly so I can’t move her without feeling like a bitch… :slight_smile: So I still didn’t sleep great last night, but still better than when I wrote those long rants above!

OTOH, in the wee hours of the night, I have come up with a great plot for our Chemistry Magic Show that we do at school every year - based on Scooby Doo! It’s been more or less decided that its going to be a musical, and I think opening it up with Emerson,Lake and Palmer’s “Karn Evil 9, First Impression, Part 2” would be a fantastic way to introduce the “haunted house” or whatever. Of course, we’d have to change some of the words, because our audience tends to be young kids (like, ages 3-7) and I don’t want them asking their parents about " seven virgins and a mule" !!!

And we get to play the Scooby song:

“Scooby dooby doo, where are you? We need some help from you now!”

hehehe

It’s not until March, but any of you in the vicinity of Guelph, come see it (regardless of whether my plot is chosen or not!) :slight_smile: