Woes of the Sleep-deprived

One of the worst feelings to get when you get into bed after a long, difficult day is that your Brain has no intention of going to Noddyland. Instead, it gets all psyched up for an all night party. Like a delinquent teenager in an empty house, your Brain will call in all kinds of undesirable company – Unpleasant Encounters Today, Unkind Words from Yesterday, Things I forgot to do Today, Things I shouldn't have said Today. These irritating party animals will be followed by whiny hangers on – Does he really love me, Am I ugly and Why didn't he call? Then when things are getting all warmed up and the party is on full swing, come the terrible twins 'It's all My Fault' and 'If Only I had…'  After that they just trash the place and allow all kinds of random guests (The name of that actress in Die Hard, How much is 135 times 436, how many times did you say 'basically' today etc) in to join the mayhem.
Looking at the clock is pointless: whenever you look you will realise that you have wasted yet another precious hour thinking of everything and nothing. You will also agonise over the fact that you have only three hours left before you must get your heavy, weary lump of a body out of the bed and into the real world. Just the thought of that is enough to keep you awake.
Young people think it's very cool to be nightbirds, chatting on Facebook or texting on a phone app or watching something inappropriate on You Tube. But after a while they too realise the downside of this self-inflicted insomnia – the dullness of the whole day, the unbearable ranting from the parents, the classes missed, the acne, bad stomach,  panda eyes and sallow skin. It's too late however, as their bodies have acclimatized to the crazy hours and refuse to function in daylight.
For older people, especially those who have to work during the day, insomnia is a curse like no other. 'This is the only time I can sleep, for goodness sake, please, PLEASE just let me fade into oblivion', they will plead with their Brain at night.  Such groveling, my dears, will get you nowhere.
The funny thing about insomnia is how it accompanies you even when you travel to far off places. You would think that if you are an insomniac in Dhaka, you would be fast asleep at night when in California, as technically the time difference would mean their night would be your day and hence sleep time. But no, your body and brain will betray you like the worst breed of double agents.
And insomnia does terrible things to your personality. Even the most angelic of persons will turn into utter harpies, snapping at every comment, blasting whoever crosses their path and leaving a trail of utter bewilderment and devastation. In fact it is more than likely that a good number of violent criminals are insomniacs.
Unusual forgetfulness is often another side effect of insomnia. Take this scenario: You are at your office, feeling pretty dead with lack of sleep. You cannot find a very important document that your Boss has asked you to give feedback on. You call your colleague and she says she had kept it on your desk – you are convinced there was no such thing. You argue, the pitch in your voice gets shriller. Finally you hang up, telling the colleague to stop making up stories and send the darn document. Just then another co-worker, pipes in and enquires whether the document in question is the one that you had put into an envelope to make sure it didn't get misplaced. You may feel like charging your head into the wall but that would be counterproductive. The only thing left to do is some damage control by apologising profusely to the wronged colleague.
Ironically, the sleep that refused to visit at bedtime, will hit you like a tornado at the most inopportune moment – at a board meeting, job interview or your own engagement.
Whatever the reason behind the sleeplessness – too much caffeine or too little activity, lovesickness or heartache – insomniacs are misunderstood people. So the next time you judge someone for being grouchy and looking scruffy go a little easy on them – they may just be deprived of a much needed shut eye.