Day 63

Good day everybody. So last night at work started out ok, had a rough middle, and then ended fine. Lets start with the beginning of the shift. Just before hand, as I wrote about yesterday I believe, I had managed to get a 1 hour power nap in the car just before we got home. Then I took a cold shower for like 5 minutes. Cold showers are not something I do really. Mainly because I've always loved nice, hot showers. Sometimes it depends I guess. Like when I go out during the hot day and go for a 2 mile lap, then when I take a shower I naturally will let the water be a little bit cooler. When your body temperature is up, I find it harder to be in really warm or hot water. So naturally the water will be cool. Not cold necesarily, but cool.

So after the cold shower, work started out just fine. I was surprised at how awake and alert I was. It was like that till about 9:30 or 10 oclock. Maybe a little before. I locked up south campus and then as I drove back to north, people were driving towards me, and their headlights in my vision were first very obviously the 2 individual lights, and then my vision clouded over and the headlights became one massive light. I knew the tiredness was starting to set in pretty hard then. I spent 10PM till probably about 3:30, constantly walking around, drinking water, trying to bring my alertness back. Everything I did was only temporary. I would drink cold water, and my vision would uncloud, and I would feel alert, then 15 minutes later suddenly everything would get heavy again. I even while getting a drink or re-filling my water bottle out of the ice cold water fountain, I stuck my face in the water streem. It was much colder than the shower I took, and when it drenched my face, first I gasped because of the cold, then I realized "wow, I'm fully alert!"

I thought "cool, extreme cold jolts you back awake. I had heard about it but never tried to go that extreme." But of course, like most things, it was temporary. I sat down for a few minutes and then suddenly it started to happen again. So the next thing I tried was to get my heart pumping hard. I remembered in basic training that although we never were allowed to sleep a lot, meaning we'd be lights out at 10PM and up by 2:30 getting ready for the day, we ran and did physical stuff a lot and although yes I was tired, at the same time I was alert and focused most of the time. So, here's what I did. I went into one of the stairwells and I ran up the stairs all the way to the 4th floor. That's 4 flights of stairs. When I got up there, I was breathing hard, and my heart was racing. I walked slowly back down, letting it calm down, and after that, wahlah! I was awake, with no more feeling heavy or whatever. Good stuff.

So in closing, when I went to bed at 6:30, I deliberately did not set my alarm. I wanted lots of sleep. And the amount I ended up with, I slept from 6:30 *falling asleep in minutes just like I thought I would,* till 5:15PM. Then I got ready for work and had to go to work at 6. But at least tonight I will be doing a hell of a lot better than last night. Sleep is an important and powerful thing.

Thanks for being here.

CB