Day 2: The Struggles

Day 2

My watch vibrated and woke me up at 530am and it felt refreshing but I was still tired and sleepy. As usual I packed everything up and got out of the room. I made myself a mixture of instant oat and chocolate malt for a quick breakfast before heading out for a half-hearted jog. It was just a cool down walk and jog for 30 minutes which I was able to clock in about 3km.

Back in the office I had a cup of kopi-o without sugar in the hope to keep staying awake at work. It doesn’t help much to be honest but neither did I sneak in a sleep during work. It was a bit of s struggle to get through the day at work. Had a cup of longan juice for lunch to boost awareness during tea at 330pm and it was super sweet. My business is the furnishing industry sometimes requires me to move furniture around for display purposes. So today I rearranged to store a little bit that has officially drained my energy for the day and still meeting up with an old friend later.

At 845pm I met up with an old friend since secondary school. We had a good chat and a good laugh. Dinner was on him as he insisted on it. Had a bowl of mala noodles with just a cup of warm water on top of the dinner I had at 6pm. By the time I reached home it was 10pm already. Did my usual ritual of cleaning up and doing some laundry while my warm milk simmer in the milk warmer my Mrs got from her aunt. I am now drinking that cup of milk while I am doing this entry. Hopefully to go to bed before 11pm. Wish me luck!

My aim to sleep by 11pm was awaken by a noise that came from an unknown place. Still unable to sleep that is 1120pm now. But aim still goes to wake up at 530am.

It is now 1 am and I am as alert as can be. I fell asleep briefly at 12 midnight until I woke up suddenly without any interference. I have no idea what kept me awake. But now it is nearly 1am and I am really alert. My eyes are really tired and body feels exhausted. But whenever I lay down, the brains refuses to shut down and keeps me awake. Whenever the urge to fall asleep kicks in, it gets me up again as if something is too scary to make me fall asleep. Is it a sign that my body is telling me that I might not wake up again tomorrow if I sleep?

It is a disaster. I could’t sleep at all tonight. It is now 5am. Half an hour left before my wake up time. My head hurts and my eyes are so heavy. I don’t know what to type here anymore. But my rituals has failed. I need help.

Sleep Diary: Day 1

After a restless night on Saturday, 14/12/2019, I made myself wake up at my usual time at 5.30am no matter how sleepy or tired I am. I knew I am going to have a long day as I have to take my daughter out for Queensbay to see Christmas decoration and experience “snow” (which smells as bad as chemicals that would kill you BTW). I checked my watch to see that I only had a good 5 hours sleep which was never enough. But I got up and packed my bed. *out of bed* I made myself a cup of instant oat and chocolate malt before heading out for a jog.

I went for a jog around the housing area when I was actually planning to go for a jog on my usual route along Police Marine to Queensbay Mall. I struggled through the 8km which was shy off my usual 10km on weekends. But I did it. I was truly knackered at the end of it but pushed on to wake my wife and my kids up to get ready to leave home to my parent’s place for breakfast. So I had breakfast with a cup of black tea and went out to the living room to have a shut eye for a good 15 minutes (power nap). Woke up still feeling shit but pushed on and got to work.

I was not sleepy after that. But I was feeling tired nonetheless but I pushed on until 4pm when I closed up shop and dragged myself through the rest of the day. Note: I drank a box of Lipton’s Ice Lemon Tea during lunch because expiry date was close. When I was at Queensbay around 8pm I was totally exhausted and felt that I could sleep at any moment but I entertained by buying my family ice cream from Inside Scoop. I knew I wouldn’t be able to control myself so I excused myself to go walk around so avoid myself from taking sugar at night.

I went home did some house work and hung up my clothes to dry while heating up a glass of warm milk. I cleaned up myself and prepare myself for bed. I end the day by drinking a glass of milk. I knew about rituals before sleep to help sleep better. I put on my headphone and turned played an episode from Clarkson, May and Hammond on my iPad and put it face down. I slept till about 3am when I woke up to check the time. I put my headphone aside (fallen out of my ear now and officially sleeping on top of them) and tried to sleep. I couldn’t fall asleep even though I feel groggy. So I hook up my headphone and played the tablet again. Sure enough, I fell back asleep probably after less than a minute.

Notes:
Total Sleep Time                : 7 hours and 1 minute (10:15pm-ish till 5:30am)

Sugary/Caffine Drinks       : 

• Instant oat and chocolate malt 
• Lipton Ice Lemon Tea (box) 
• Boh Black Tea (no sugar)

Milk before Bed Time        : Yes

Ritual                                  : 

• Glass of milk (yes). 
• Phone/Games before bed time (no). 
• iPad (Choice of sleep sound). 

Waking                               : Yes (once at 3 am) Fall back asleep easily (choice of sleep sound).

The Introduction

My Story of being an Insomniac.

My case of insomniac wasn’t really a bad one. I begin to have this problem when I temporarily moved over to my aunt’s place to watch over her dogs and her garden. This was for a 3 week stint and I was having sleepless night for over a week. During this time I rarely go for my usual jog that I would take at least 3 times a week but could only manage to jog once a week (due to laziness and fatigue).

I used to be able to sleep easily. My wife would say that I could fall asleep so easily that within a count of 10, I would be snoring till the next morning about 530am when it is my wake up time. So you could imagine the frustrations that I have when I couldn’t sleep.

After a week of being at the new place, my lack of sleep was taking a toll on me. During this time I had signed up for a Bridge Run (just a 10km) in the middle of the month. I remember I couldn’t sleep at all on the night before the run and it was all down to nervousness (aka stress). I needed a solution for my lack of sleep as my performance during my work dropped tremendously and was falling ill as well.

On the nights that I could fall asleep, I would choose to sleep in and clock in an hour or 2 extra to put back the sleeps that I missed. I thought after I moved back to my own place, my sleep would be back to its original state.

Sadly after 2 weeks plus, I have yet to have it back. Instead the lack of sleep persists and I was lacking sleep as well. I could now imagine how bad it would be for insomniacs that has embraced it as part of their life. It would have been such a stressful way living when sleep is one of the best luxuries in life. So after enduring this problem for 7 weeks, I begin a journey to a better sleep and I am going to write about it to help others.