It’s now been just over 6 months (minus one day 🙂 without a full night’s sleep, and I’m totally fascinated by the body/mind’s ability to function on limited rest. The amazing thing is that I don’t generally feel sleepy. I can stay awake to read in bed most nights, and I’ve kept up my bad habit of staying up past midnight just to have some extra time to myself. Sleep deprivation is affecting me in entirely unexpected ways.
- I am clumsy.
- I can’t remember anything. If I don’t write it down immediately, it’s gone. (Seriously, if I said I would call you back and you didn’t hear from me, or I promised I’d do something and didn’t do it, please don’t take it personally.)
- I constantly lose my train of thought.
- What was I saying?
- My sense of humor is lacking sophistication.
- I don’t finish my sentences. Dave is especially affected by this since I’ll start telling him something, get distracted, and just walk away. It sounds bizarre, but
- I don’t get sarcasm. Really, I just take everything at face value – can’t look deeper than that. (This one is challenging since I know a lot of really sarcastic/subtle people.)
- I can’t do math. (Yes – I am going to blame this on sleep deprivation. Once I’m well rested again I’ll figure out another excuse.)
- I lost my sense of direction. (heehee – just kidding)
- I have to double check really basic things – do I have my keys, do I have the baby with me, am I wearing pants.
Oh yeah, and I must be somewhat emotionally stunted because somewhere in the last month Amelia almost died and I barely reacted. I was worried, but I definitely didn’t get as upset as I should have when Dave called me in NY and told me he had to rush Amelia to the emergency vet. And I got really annoyed when I had to give Amelia antibiotics twice a day for two weeks. AND, I rather enjoyed the fact that she was so quiet and didn’t poop all over the house when she was sick in her cage. But she’s healthy again and back with a vengeance so I’m paying for all these terrible thoughts.
Finally, I’m losing my ability to write entertaining blog posts.
Nah, the blog posts are still entertaining!
welcome to my world.
granted i don’t have a baby as the root cause, but i am intimately familiar with this list because it is with these symptoms that i have lived my entire (mostly entire) life.
i take this list as vindication against all the complaints that have been levied against me by others (mainly our parents) about my forgetfulness, aloofness, emotional detachment, etc.
proof positive is that when i actually did get consistent good-night-sleeps i got into MIT.
so there.