Work Yourself Sick

If I could only need to sleep like two hours and be able to survive fully functional...
I would be a very happy person.
For I really enjoy being awake in the day, getting up early and feeling productive.
But I also love the quiet of nighttime, and staying up past midnight doing this and that.


Unfortunately.
That is not the case.
My body craves sleep.
And I've been depriving it of that need.


It started Sunday night.
Like usual...I got distracted doing this and that on the computer,
and before I knew it...it was 2am.
And I had a 6am wakeup call.
So I went to bed...and ended up tossing and turning and being wakeful.
So if I was lucky...I got four hours of sleep.
But it was less then lucky so less then four hours.


So I was up at 6am Monday.
And Monday I had a full schedule.
Functioning on 3ish hours of sleep.
And as my procrastinative luck would have it.
I had three assignments due in the morning.
Today.
A critique of a movie, a summarization of a paper, and an article review.
Easypeasy right?
Wrong.
The movie and summary homework, went rather well.
Slow because I don't like writing homework most of the time
Because I don't know what to say.
And then came the article review.
It was already midnight at this point.
But I figured it wouldn't be that hard to find two articles and summarize/compare them in one paper.
Wrong.
So wrong.
I had to find articles from accredited online journals.
And....some bright person.
Decided to have 99 out of 100 journals...'sign up to get me' or 'pay me this much money to see me' formulas.
So what I thought would be a quick thirty minute project...ended up becoming a two-three hour project.
The teacher lied. Saying it shouldn't take longer then a couple of hours.
No.
It took longer.
Because the articles weren't free! So I couldn't access them!
It really didn't help that by like 10:30 I was already brain dead from lack of sleep the night before.
But I told myself in that stubborn way. "I'll finish this paper, I'll finish this. I don't have the time to do all my assignments in the morning so I need to get them done before I go to bed tonight...."

Well....it worked...I went through phases of sleepiness and awakeness.
Til.....about 2:17amish.
(I actually don't remember the time.)
I had been working diligently on typing out my paper, having found the two journal articles I needed.
When I hit a wall.
Like a major red lights flashing, alarms blaring wall.
Where I told myself "SARNIC GET TO BED NOW!"
It wasn't that "You go to bed now or I will make you fall asleep where you stand" voice.
No, it was the "I am shutting down whether you like it or not. It doesn't matter if you still have homework done, your systems are empty, there is no more battery left in the plant, You NEED TO GO RECHARGE! GO NOW!"
So...I went....for the wall was like a wave of sickness.
I had felt it coming on.
But this was overwhelming.
Where I literally felt sick.
Like stomach was upset, head aching itself to pieces sick.
I had pushed my body too far.
And it demanded rest.
So I went and tried to rest.

It didn't work out that way.
I got very little rest because my overworked systems were rebelling against me.
Particularly my stomach rebelled. But once it was done throwing a fit, I was able to down some medicine and grab my heat pack.
And go huddle on the couch in the living room.

The sickness and feeling of "I really don't feel well."
Was bad enough that I started mentally asking myself what classes could I miss in the morning.
What classes did I have to be there for? It was about 6am at this point.
But an hour and a half later...when I got up to finish my Article Review....
I was feeling almost normal.
Awake even.

Its a blessing that I repeatedly am grateful for.
For I do get major headaches, that once in a while upset my stomach...and the pain gets to the point where I consider missing classes.
Yet, I have been blessed, that no matter how many hours I loose in sleep, how sick I feel, by the time the time for me to get ready rolls around. I am able to get up and go to school and feel normal again.
Its a blessing I would dearly miss were it to disappear from my life.

Anyway. I was able to get to school, and actually be awake.
I was functioning off of another four hours of sleep...
and I was awake.
It was odd, but I'm grateful for it, for I needed to be awake and studious this day. :)

Its just weird. I'd never had that feeling before.
Where I literally made myself sick by staying up late trying to think and do homework...
When my brain was not awake and not in the mood to do homework.
Perhaps next time an assignment is due. I'll go to bed and wake up early. Instead of go to bed late and wake up later.
Then I will avoid....
Working myself sick.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream
A part of my dream that I remember was...I think I was reading an article about why President Monson was late to Saturday General Conference...he'd been involved in a a hit and run accident...a fenderbender of some sort...

-S.N.D