The last time I remember lying in bed, unable to sleep, was sometime before I moved away to college. Since then, I've had a rather easy time falling asleep, until now. Now that I am back home the insomnia has begun to set in again. This would be fine, after all I work two hours a day, I can always catch up on sleep when I'm not at work, except that I have to be up at 6am for work, and by the time I have gotten home from work, sleep is the last thing on my mind. Until the insomnia sets back in that night.

On further inspection I have endured a couple of these insomnia type nights while living at my last apartment. One in particular was most frustrating because I had to be up at 2am for work. It was the first time I had to wake up that early, and so I ensured that I went to bed quite early, probably around six or seven. This worked fine, though it was more of a nap. I awoke sometime around 9:30 and fought with sleep until about 11. Needless to say, the next day of work I slogged through and wound up leaving early as I felt completely awful. This is usually the way that it goes. A part of me feels wide awake, ready to do anything, another part of me is exhausted and tired, and just wants sleep. Sadly, more often than not the wide awake part wins out. Last night for example, I awoke around 10:30, laid in bed for a bit trying to fall back asleep. My body was in much of a comatose sense, however, my mind was moving a mile a minute. Because I am a writer, turning my brain off, is near impossible. I spent many a night in high school writing a novel in my head, sadly I never wrote much of it down. I finally fell asleep, only to be awakened a bit later, again unable to fall asleep.

Of course, I didn't follow the standard protocol, whatever you do, not stay in bed. I stayed in bed, I read, I hoped on my computer a little bit, but I did not leave the comfort of my bed. Though, finally the second time around I did pull myself out of bed with a book and curled up on a makeshift window seat in my mothers library, which is next to my bedroom. Perhaps this helped, for when I went back to bed I finally fell asleep for the night.

Obviously I know what not to do, but I do also know what to do. I know that I need to make my bed a haven, for sleep, sleep, and nothing but sleep. Perhaps the problem is that I'm a bit of a scheduled person, moving back home has thrown a bit of a wrench into this. Though, I am trying to fix this, after all my parents are perhaps more scheduled than I. You know that commercial that asks "It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your children are?" If they asked me where my parents were I could tell them with a defineitve "Yes! They are in the den, watching the ten o'clock news on Fox." And every Saturday from 8 o'clock on, you can find them in front of the tube, watching Cops and America's Most Wanted. But back to the insomniac. The only real space to sit in my room is on my bed, and because of that, I do everything there. I know this is a huge no-no, but I do it anyways, though I can happily report that I am currently in the library in a little makeshift office I have constructed for myself. I also know that you need to set a specific bedtime for yourself, and generally I do, though i bring a book to bed with me, and don't always know when I'll take a break to sleep. Another problem is that I somehow lost my eyeshade a few days into the move. I know I had it originally, but now it has disappeared. I'm beginning to think that my body is somewhat addicted to it, perhaps that is not the right word, let me explain. I love this eyeshade, it is purple satiny fabric and fits perfectly around my head, it is nice and snug and keeps any light out that might try and keep me awake. I have a feeling that my mind saw my putting on the eyeshade as a sign that it was time for bed, now that I don't do that my mind doesn't know when it's time for bed. I'm not always good at keeping other routines, like washing my face and brushing my teeth. Perhaps if i pick up these habits the insomia will run away.