I haven’t written much lately. I couldn’t really tell you exactly why. I guess it can be attributed to a variety of reasons - all of which hold some ground, but shouldn’t really be preventing me from writing. Sometimes, life is just too fast-paced to allow for pursuing your passions. This is a universal truth that took me a while to come to terms with. There just isn’t enough time in life. I’ve tried to do everything within my power to stretch, bend, and twist time into the shape I need it to be, which is the shape of infinity, but it turns out time isn’t very pliable. It really doesn’t work well with others.
I remember one point in time when I tried to brave through the pains of adjusting to “the uber-man’s sleep cycle.” Had I completed it successfully, this sleep patterned would have allowed me to sleep for a mere four hours a day, while receiving all the useful, rejuvenating sleep I needed to function as if I slept eight hours every night. The way it works is complicated, but I will break it down simply.
There are two important parts of sleep - useful sleep and garbage sleep. Useful sleep is what they call REM sleep and it is the only deep phase of sleep that your body actually benefits from. It is also the stage of sleep that allows for dreaming. The rest of your night’s rest isn’t really restful and doesn’t do much to re-energize you. So the idea of this particular sleep cycle is that it cuts out unneeded sleep. How it works is that you only sleep for two hours a night, then throughout your day you take five 20 minute naps. After about two weeks, your body adjusts to this type of pattern, and the second you fall asleep, you snap into REM mode. You don’t have to waste your time sleeping through wasteful sleep to get to the sleep that actually helps to rest you.
Sounds easy, right? Wrong. I’m sure that once your body has adjusted then it becomes easy, but it is nearly impossible to actually adjust too. They warn you that for two weeks you will become a complete zombie. You become barely able to function because during these two weeks you aren’t jumping straight into REM sleep, you actually aren’t really reaching REM sleep at all. Therefore it’s as if you haven’t slept for days and days. Caffeine messes up the cycle, so count that out. So after three days, I counted myself out. I can’t function without sleep. I turn into a ravenous bitch that’s uncontrollable in anyway. My already flaring temper becomes a popped hot air balloon that can’t be repaired, and it has me crashing straight toward the ground, taking out anyone in my way. I caved. I couldn’t do it. I feared for other people’s well being more than my own.
Back to my point though, there isn’t enough time in life. I tried to fix this by attempting to only sleep for four hours a day. Imagine that! Four whole extra hours that I could read, write, play guitar, hang out with friends, do school work. The possibilities seemed endless! If only it would have worked.
I guess what I’m getting at is that I haven’t been writing lately because I haven’t had enough time. I go to work five days a week, and when I’m not working, I’m spending nearly my whole day at school. When I’m not in school or working, I’m spending time with my boyfriend, friends, cats, family. I wish I had more me time, but for now, it’s merely wishful thinking.
I wish I could write more right now, but I hear that demon they call sleep luring me to bed with his soothing lullabies. While this piece hardly has a point, it has caused me to think about my life and my writing, and I’ve decided I shall try to write for at least ten minutes a day. That’s a seemingly attainable goal, wouldn’t ya say?