For some reason, early autumn just kicks my ass. As the daylight begins to wane, some obscure structure in my brain decides it is Time to Hibernate.
My body insists that I should really sleep more. As in, pretty much all the time. Dragging my butt out of bed becomes a tremendous challenge. On the bus ride to work, instead of knitting industriously, I zone out and snooze a little with my head against the window. (Until the bus hits a bump: CRACK Ow!) I sit at my desk thinking that I could easily grab five minutes worth of sleep if I just shut the door and stretch out on the floor. And maybe if I take a nap I could hold a coherent thought in my head for more than thirty seconds. Caffeine? Consumed in mass quantities. Now I’m both tired and jittery, and my attention span is even shorter. The bus ride home isn’t much better. (Bump. CRACK Ow!) When I crash on the couch after dinner, I end up dozing off. I go to bed at nine thirty because I just. can’t. keep. my. eyes. open.
Also, my body has also decreed that if I’m awake, I really should be stuffing my face. It’s not my usual bored/unhappy munchiness. I’m hungry, stomach-grumbling hungry. I track my diet carefully, and even though for meals eat the usual things in the usual amounts, it isn’t enough! Monday, I dug through the cabinet and found some old crackers and ate them by the handful even though were completely stale. Last night, I sat in front of the computer eating brown sugar by the spoonful straight from the canister. No, that is not a metaphor for anything. I crave sweet things all day long. If I give into the craving, I get a short burst of energy followed by a hard crash.
Oh, and I’m also thirsty all the time. What’s up with that? I am constantly sipping at a glass of water, and the back of my throat feels dry and my skin is dry and looks dull and wrinkly, and I have that little dehydration headache (though Og knows that could be from fatigue or hunger or some other reason). I didn’t bring any water with me on the bus last night, and by the end of the 45-minute ride I was so thirsty that I rode on to the next stop where there’s a convenience store and bought a lemonade and chugged it down while I was standing at the counter.
This happens to me every year, though it seems particularly severe this time. In the past, I have bounced back to normal when we go off Daylight Savings Time, but good gracious, that’s not until the end of October!
Does anyone else experience this? I am not 100% sure, but I think this can all be traced to that time I was accidentally injected with a syringe full of radioactive grizzly bear DNA . . .
). All of a sudden it seems like you’re doing everything in the dark.