Monday, November 9, 2009

A Month of Facts about Dru: Day Twelve

Today's true story:

Somehow, I got sick over the weekend. Nothing too serious. Just a cold. I've got a big sore throat and my voice sounds whack right now.

Someone just told me that maybe the one upside of being sick is that it means he gets a good, deep, restful night's sleep. I thought this was interesting because I have the complete opposite experience.

When I am sick, even if it's a minor head cold that takes like two days for my healing factor to juvenate, I don't sleep like I normally do. Normally, I go to sleep and don't wake up until it's time to wake up. Either my alarm clock wakes me up, or I just wake up automatically when I've had enough sleep. When I am sick, though, I find myself constantly waking up at all hours of the night.

I don't necessarily attribute all the waking up as effects of being sick. Like, if I have a bad cough, I don't always just wake up hacking and wheezing or anything. I just wake up and have to try to go back to sleep. Or sometimes I will have to wake up and use the bathroom, something I never have to do when I am not sick.

The reason why it's annoying to wake up over and over is because it means I have to fall back asleep. I don't think I have a diagnosable sleeping problem, but usually it takes me a while to fall asleep. Some people can fall asleep within a few minutes. When I am tired, sometimes it takes me a good twenty minutes to fall asleep. It's annoying, and waking up at 2AM, then having to fall back asleep, only to wake up again at 4AM, rankles me.

Even when I wake up just once during the night, it's a good tip-off that I am sick. This happened to me a week ago. I went to sleep one night feeling completely fine, but I woke up around 5AM. I didn't even have to swallow or anything. My first conscious thought was, "Aw, crap. I must be sick." And sure enough, I had a little sore throat.

And then I proceeded to go about my week as I normally do, only I probably didn't take as good care of myself as I should have, and now, instead of being fully healed, I am sicker than I was when I first woke up that one morning. What is the point of an early-warning system if you don't heed it? I don't know. I guess I am just a glutton for punishment. Either that, or a master of cliches. Probably both.

The point is, I am probably not as smart as I think I am. Somehow I am okay with this. If I were a bit smarter, maybe I'd have a problem.

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