Tuesday, May 08, 2007

A Night with the ADHD Insomniac

(The Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disordered Insmoniac -- from here on out referred to as ADHD-I --went to bed at 10:30 and fell fast asleep. She’s not sure exactly what it was that woke her up, heart pounding at 12:30, because all she remembers dreaming about is a dog with a red bandanna playing with a soccer ball, but she’s been awake, fretting about work and other life issues ever since. Ages ago, she slipped away into the guest bedroom, so her husband wouldn't be bothered by her restlessness.)

What time is it? 2:00 a.m.? Already? S**t! I’ve got to get some sleep. Come on, sleep…Okay, not a good idea to think about sleep. Don’t think about sleep. Visualize. Take a deep breath. Count sheep. There’s a big fat sheep happily jumping over a fence. Looks like something that could outsmart Wile E. Coyote. One. One big fat sheep. Two. Two big fat sheep. Three…four…five…six. Did I remember to turn the laundry room light off before coming to bed? What about the deck light? Yeah, I think I did. Stop it. Focus on the sheep. Here comes another one. What is that six? Seven? Seven, I guess. Eight. Nine… Oh f**k! Who am I kidding? The only way I’m going to conjure up a sheep right now is if one comes through the ceiling and lands on top of me. I’d like to strangle the idiot who came up with the notion that counting sheep is a way to get to sleep.

(ADHD-I throws off the covers, because it’s too hot. She tosses and turns for a few minutes. She flips upside down with her head at the foot of the bed – that used to work when she was a kid and couldn’t sleep. She lies there for who knows how long. Feels like sleep is just on the horizon. Her back starts itching. Her legs start itching. No amount of scratching seems to help. It’s a deep-down, way-below-the-surface-of-the-skin sort of itch).

Damn! What’s the matter with me? Why am I so itchy? What’s that a symptom of? AIDS? The Ebola virus? I can’t remember. Ought to get up and look it up online. No. I am not going online. I’m going to sleep. I have to sleep.

(ADHD-I now starts to get cold. She flips back around and gets back under the covers. She lies there for what seems like a very long time, but is only five minutes.) That’s better. I can just feel my eyelids getting droopy. Look into them. Look into the darkness of them. Pretend you’re in a dark tunnel. Don’t think about anything. Remember that time in first grade when you got in trouble for talking, and Ralph was the one who was talking? That was so unfair. And don’t forget that time in junior high when nobody would let you sit with them on the school bus. And then there was the time you tripped on the stairs in high school…God.

What time is it now? 3:00!? Okay, if I get to sleep within the next ten minutes, I can skip breakfast, get up at 6:30, and that will still be a little over three hours, plus the two I got earlier, which means I'll be getting really close to six hours of sleep. Six hours of sleep isn't bad. Lots of people only get six hours of sleep a night. Hell, lots of people seem to thrive on only four hours of sleep a night. They brag about it. Wish I were one of them. If I were, I wouldn't brag. Oh, s**t, I forgot to give Lisa her book back last time I was in the office. Uh-oh, did I leave that book at the office? What did I do with it? I hope I didn’t lose it. Dammit, I’m hungry. I’m going to ignore that growling stomach. If I were asleep, it wouldn’t be bothering me. (Stomach growls a few more times.) Wait a minute. I think I read that hunger keeps you awake. Cheese and milk have that stuff in them that makes you sleepy. Better go get some cheese and milk.

(ADHD-I makes her way downstairs to the kitchen to get some cheese and milk, making sure not to look out any windows on the way, lest she sees some scary-looking face looking back in at her. She cuts herself a chunk of cheese and pours a glass of milk, spots a Cooking Light magazine on the kitchen table and takes it back up to bed with her anything-but-light, wee-hours-of-the-morning snack. She props herself up in bed, eats, drinks, and reads recipes until she’s sure she can’t keep her eyes open any longer. The magazine is slipping from her hand. She turns off the light and curls up under the covers. She’s beginning to dream. Suddenly, there’s an unidentified thump from downstairs.)

What was that?! (Heart pounding again, she sits up in bed and listens.) Is it someone in the house? If someone’s in the house, do I have time to slip into the closet and hide? No, wait a minute. The closet was a terrible hiding place in Halloween. I wonder if I’d hurt myself if I jumped off the second-floor deck? Is that someone coming up the stairs? (Listens intently, but all she hears is the sound of the morning newspaper being delivered.)

S**t! The paper’s already being delivered. I’m never going to sleep now. I’ve got an hour at best. Should I just get up? Nah. Might as well just lie here and make the best of it. Lying still is almost as good as sleeping according to that one article...

(Twenty minutes before the alarm goes off, she slips into a near-comatose state.)

14 comments:

mandarine said...

Try to find an audiobook with poetry -- the easy sort of poetry -- and listen to it in bed. I find that being read to when I try to get some sleep brings back the relaxed and serene child I used to be when I would go to bed.

As a valid alternative, you could listen to a lecture on some obscure matter (quantum physics, computational fluid dynamics, holonomic functions, any will do, providing that you stop understanding anything after a couple of minutes). If the speaker's voice is sufficiently monotone, it is sure to bring back the comatose student I used to be when the subject became too boring.

IM said...

Emily, I'm sorry that you couldn't sleep, but this could be the funniest thing I've ever read.

Emily Barton said...

Mandarine, the lecture on some obscure matter sounds like it could be very, very effective. (Poetry, although a good idea in theory, might get me composing blog posts, which would lead me to the computer...)Wonder why I never thought of that.

Ian, if I made you laugh, it was well worth the lack of sleep.

Charlotte said...

Hope you get some sleep tonight! There's nothing worse than lying with eyes wide open, waiting for sleep. When I was pregnant and unable to sleep, I used to take very long hot baths. That sometimes helped, especially if I put a little lavender essence into the water.

Anonymous said...

Sorry about your insomnia. My husband suffers from it sometimes and when it's really bad he gets up and plays computer games in which he kills things for an hour or two. Once he's worn himself out killing monsters he generally is able to get to sleep. Maybe instead of coutning sheep, you should try imagining yourself turning them into mutton chops :)

Emily Barton said...

Charlotte, baths help a lot when I go through these periodic bouts of insomnia. I'll have to get some lavender bubblebath.

Stef, yes, those blasted sheep are definitely mutton-chop candidates.

Rebecca H. said...

Oh God, so sorry -- isn't insomnia just the very worst? It's great that you can turn it into a funny blogpost, though -- you get something out of the experience.

Froshty said...

Have you been in my head or something? The only part you missed was, "I should spend my tax refund on a new floor for the family room. No, wait, if I do that, then I'm sure the furnace will blow up and I won't be able to repay it. No, what I really need to do find out when you have to make the next college tuition installment while I have the money. What if I'm two months behind already? That's the whole refund..."

Emily Barton said...

Dorr, yes, it always helps to be able to turn things into funny blog posts. I don't know how I survived before I had this outlet!

Froshty, well, no those sorts of thoughts were missing this go-round, but don't think I haven't had a little experience with them.

Anonymous said...

Why is it we go back to school or childhood when we can't sleep? I hate reliving the time I forgot my Tag book in Mr. Rullman's class. Or the time I kept bothering a strange woman I thought was Mom when I had my towelly thing stuck over my head at the Tanglewood swimming pool.

Anonymous said...

Emily,

Do you crave cheese as a snack? Do you know others with ADHD that prefer cheese to other snacks?

Emily Barton said...

Anonymous, I'm not actually diagnosed ADHD. I was using it tongue-in-cheek. However, I do have members of my family who are ADD and ADHD, and, I don't know if there's a connection, but they do love cheese. My niece, however, who is ADD, is lactose intolerant and can't eat it.

Paintball76 said...

I have this disease too im 14 teen and thats exactly what I do when I try to lay down and close my eyes is I think about girls and cars and when Im going paintball next and stuff like that but unlike you I get lucky if I can at least fall asleep but I take this medidcine called cloneidine try it, it works to help get you sleep or binadril works to but that puts me in a deep sleep but I would like to be able to sleep normal for once tho i mean its 6:06am right now and im still awake! it stinks I hate ADHD and ADHD insomniac and when it gets about 7:00am I get wired out or just a zombie with alot of blanked out stares and wide eyes and I talk really loud and fast lol

Emily Barton said...

Paintball 76, you might want to try a natural sleep aid, which has been working for me lately. If you have a health food store nearby, look for something that has a combination of melatonin and valerian in it. Good luck!