The Dreaming

I read somewhere that the average amount of shuteye that a person gets is only like half that recommended by the National Institute of People Who Give a Shit. If that is the case then I am maybe only a third of that. I have been dealing with some insomnia that is bordering on truly Tyler Durden levels. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised that following some lost time, I awaken to consciousness to find that I have dug an extensive catacomb system under my property and stocked it with DJ equipment, orange juice, and neon signs that read “Dante’s Dance Dance Revolution”.

A quick google –bing, if your one of those losers- search can be enlightening on the subject, including the possible causes for sleeplessness. These causes include anxiety, depression, and stress, and all of those are some of my favorite hobbies. They also mention alcohol and caffeine consumption as possible causes of broken or fragmented sleep, which is odd to me because I viewed those both as treatment methods for insomnia. Next thing they’ll try to push on me is that it might not be entirely “healthy” to shotgun an extra large meatball sub from Quizno’s just before I try to sleep.

One of the odd bits of nuisance knowledge that I had hewn from my time at Purdue was the concept of REM rebound. (and no, I don’t mean anything on the Up album. That whole damn cd was a collection of suck that has no equal.) If memory serves me, the sleep is separated into several distinct phases, one of which is Rapid Eye Movement. It is believed that REM is the period of sleep in which the lion’s share of dreaming occurs but is also the least restful of the phases. The term rebound comes from the observation some researchers has seen that show prolonged periods of REM sleep following bouts of sleep deprivation. If that is the case then the next good nights sleep I actually get should be one long unbroken episode of Yo Gabba Gabba.

I guess that if I where to be honest I would say that the real reason that I don’t get a goodnights sleep most of the time is because I don’t want to spend my life with my eyes closed. It always seems like there is some fun to be had- or at the very least witnessed - somewhere, even in the comparatively empty quiet of my small Midwestern hamlet. The common wisdom being that there will be plenty of time to sleep when I am dead, but it would be more accurate to say that there will be plenty of time to sleep when the history channel and adult swim no longer hold my interest.

Short one today, I’m pretty tired.