Norman Ralph

Today I missed my alarm and ended up sleeping through our lunchtime A-Soc event – God of Emotions, something that I would never normally do. Now I do not want to excuse this by bringing up my sleeping problems, but I must admit that they probably played a part. A lot of people have made comments about my post on not sleeping (check out the Facebook page) and suggested a variety of ways to cope with the sleep pattern disruption. I am touched to see that so many people are concerned about my well being, a feeling that I have not always been privy to, and is on of the reasons that I maintain that the years spent at university are the best of one’s life, not school.

Just as a quick follow up to the last post I would like to say a few things. Firstly, insomnia is a condition that has plagued my teenage years, a condition that I pretty much could write the book on regarding cures and remedies. I think that over the years I have probably tried every known trick in the book to improve the quality and quantity of my sleep. I have come to the conclusion that whatever method you choose you have to accept the fact that it will work some of the time and not at others. I find that when trying say reading, or meditating you can get stressed about the fact you are not falling asleep and then you can’t fall asleep.

Anyway, back on topic, as I want to continue to talk about Atheist Week. Yesterday was the final day of Riley Smith activity and I thought it went OK, but not great. We only got a few people to come to Ask An Atheist (our give it a go session) but we got some realy good discussion going. The same happened at our evening debate on the positive and negative influence that Richard Dawkins has had on atheist thinking and actions. Although we never really came to a conclusion on that topic we delved quite deeply into what is faith and religion and whether we can ever really answer the philosophical questions we raise without them. All in all, I thought that this, along with Gijsbert’s talk yesterday were the highlights so far. Jerry Springer: The Opera is being shown tonight in Roger Stevens (LT23, 1900 if you are interested).

Then its London!

The time now is 03:19 and I am struggling to motivate myself to go to bed, even though there is a Liz in it – true she is sleeping off a rather heavy night out with George. It seems to be a recurring issue this sleep pattern thing. This must be the third night in a row I have slept badly or not at all.

I am trying to put my finger on the cause and I am finding it difficult to find a good reason. Sometimes I putit down to stress – which just isn’t really a reason, I am not that stressed. yes I am busy, but not stressed, not really. Then there is anxiety about money etc, but I’m not broke – poor but not broke. So who knows…

It has been a while since I have suffered from insomnia – several months in fact. Recently I have been sleeping really badly, not usually having trouble falling asleep but real problems staying asleep for more than an hour or so at a time. This isn’t too bad in terms of productivity etc as it doesn’t make you tired, just you never really feel refreshed for sleeping. However, it is currently 6.57am and I have not slept since about 5am Wednesday morning. Insomnia is truly awful experience. It isn’t an excuse for staying up late – most insomniacs crave sleep, they actually want to be asleep – they just can’t fall asleep. It is usually a psychological problem – associated with stress or depression, but can be physical – usually a response to sugar or caffeine and even alcohol. I think my current bout of insomnia is a little silly to be honest. I am not really stressed at the moment, in fatc things are going rather well. There could be an element of delayed reaction though. I have had to be strong recently and this could be my body’s revenge.

Whatever the cause it is annoying to say the least. I have lectures soon and I will be in no fit state to learn. Having watched an episode of Brainiac recently on this matter it is apparently better to be tired than wired – ie it is best if I don’t dose up on coffee