Sleep Deprivation

Last week during spring break, I chose to stay up late to catch up on television, movies and reading. It was retrospectively a test to observe how I operate under the circumstances of zero sleep. I could only figure that I have done this seldom in my life and could only remember once. The last occasion was when Garrick and I visited sites and people throughout Southern Utah and Arizona in 2008. I was awake for over 2 days straight.

Back to last week's experiences. After returning home from work I would wind down by eating and watching television. Then I would resort to submitting my blogs as a part time blogger for a local radio station. After this I would waste time on the Internet with sites like Facebook and Hulu. At some point I would decide to see if I could just stay up through the night. I estimated that I could not get to sleep so let and then get up early to accomplish much before going to work in the early afternoon. I would then set about task such as organizing files on my computer, purge various filings of papers of further unwanted items and readjusting the arrangement of objects of my possession (you know the pursuits that someone with obsessively compulsive tendencies ventures).


At some point of the late night/early morning I would run switch to quiet mode and pick up a book (one written by a Tolkien or The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Obviously the relaxation that comes from reading takes a toll on the mental fortitude required to stay up through the night while sitting or laying on my bed. The results averaged that I would give to sleep about 4:30 AM. And , as I hypothesized, I was not able to rise with much time to occupy myself with errands before heading to my paying job.


We come to Monday night. I chose not to do my last piece of homework assigned for spring break until the night before it was do. I will admit that I did do some reading and studying for my classes over previous week so it was not wholly a vacation from my problems...eh...school work. Just like the attempts of last week to stay up through the night I had to grapple with not getting up early enough for the day if I did fall to sleep late in the night. This time there would be negative consequences if I failed to arise, so my determination was raised to 'pull an all-nighter.' I had signed-up for an extra and early shift at my place of employment so instead of my early afternoon start time, I had to be at my keying station at 9:30 AM.

After completing my homework I watched a few episodes of television on my laptop then listened to music as I reorganized some more documents and pictures on the hard drive (yes I know I already mentioned that I did this. that was not the first time and this second event will not be the last time). I pushed through the 4:30 AM wall and came to the 8 o'clock hour. As my clock radio alarm went off with Radio From Hell I was lulled into moving into restful position and a sleeping status. When I woke up nearly an hour later (so I guess this truly doesn't count as an all-nighter- discount the whole discussion if you must) I quickly got in my car and drove to work. Since the weather had turned to frightful dust storms I was confused by not seeing the normal form of the son. I was very disoriented to time as I drove on the freeway. I was not certain of how early or late I actually was in reference to my clock-in time.


My mind couldn't wrap itself around the concept of being so bright so early in the morning. I could only compare my physical and mental condition to what I have heard are the results of coming of a drug high. Whether the disorientation was caused by the lack of sleep or trying to get by on a minuscule amount of sleep I don't know, but I do know that the experience caused me to be very irritable at work and throughout midday. I was able to recover before heading to class in the evening and returned to form to stay up late once again.


Here's to staying up all night again for April Fool's Day and hopes that it causes great discomfort and new reactions (too be chronicled in another posting I project).