Thursday 9 November 2017

#307 Searching for sleep

Sleep. The final frontier. I'd attended two viewings on Monday and had another four to attend before the week was out. South London was becoming my evening playground except instead of swings and roundabouts, I was riding the overground from house to house, trying to find tenants who cared enough about who they lived with to show up for meetings.

It would've been easier if the trains were on time. I was standing on West Norwood platform on Tuesday night wondering how on earth I was going to get to Brockley by 7:30pm. I'd been feeling run down and helpless for about three weeks, with no end in sight. It seemed as though my housemates, who had always used the kitchen at what to me were unthinkable times for daytime workers, had been doing so more lately and my room was right next door. I'd mentioned it several times in the past to no avail. That was just how they lived.

The sound of Bruno's thunderously loud, foul-mouthed boyfriend had always put me on edge. These days he appeared to be staying over more often than not. I couldn't sleep until 1am most nights and I was a mess. I'd been falling behind on the coaching exercises and snapping at anyone who called me. Something had to give. I paced up and down the platform, racking my brains and that's when it hit me. I could just change my sleep pattern.

Back at uni, I'd stayed up late all the time and had just got up later. Why hadn't I thought of it before? I could never sleep in late when I'd been working but I was no longer working. I decided my new bedtime would be 2am as the house was pretty much guaranteed to be quiet then. I could throw some covers over the curtains and set the alarm for 10am.

The delayed train came into view. It would take a couple of days to get used to the new routine but I'd already been staying awake into the night involuntarily so the change wouldn't be too difficult. I thought about changing my clocks to make it seem like I was sleeping regular hours but decided to leave them as they were. This was a brilliant idea. Now I could guarantee myself eight hours of sleep every night without having to worry about it. It was the perfect solution until I managed to relocate. The train doors opened and I climbed aboard. Now all I had to worry about was finding a room.

2 comments

Fizzfan said...

Sympathise completely about noise intrusion. It’s soooo annoying. Hopefully your late sleep time solution will help.

Being ground down is tough enough without having to coexist with other peoples partners too. Something I’m sure will change soon.....

Ever tried ear plugs? I have, and they do work:)



Profound Familiarity said...

I have tried them.

The late sleep solution is helping so far. It's the fourth morning and I feel ok although I have woken slightly earlier but that's ok.