Needles tomorrow (bring 'em on)

"Oft hope is born, when all is forlorn!" Thus said Aragorn in The Return of the King as their captured ships headed towards Minas Tirith. It's a lovely sentiment, certainly; I hope it works for us as well as for the fictional captain of the Dunedain.

Oh, I am so looking forward to an acupuncture treatment tomorrow. Another annoying cycle is coming back upon me: the loss of sleep.This nonsense has been hitting me, hard, for at least a month. For a few days after a treatment, I sleep quite nicely through the night. I even had a couple of nights of really good, strong dreaming last week. But beginning two nights ago, and really nastily last night, I wake up around 1:00AM and then stay awake until 3:00 or 4:00. Or, as has happened in the past, 5:00. When this sleep-cycle-shifting hits me during the weekend, I can nap during the day (for a few hours) but that isn't really available to me during the work week. Today, I've been doing my darndest not to do any napping, hoping that it'll mean that I'll sleep through the night.

We'll see.

A few days ago, I had hopes to come home tonight and work on some music. I really didn't have it in me to try and create tonight. Instead, I poked at some "needed to be done eventually" programming for work, which went pleasantly well and pleasantly quickly; that'll button up in short order later this week, but I hope the "restoration buzz" that comes from a good acupuncturing will last for at least a few days.

Lemme tell you, not being able to get any sleep really hurts when your days are spent around 14-year-olds. Many of them are very interested in trying new things and going new places. Many of them are interested in having fun and making noise instead, which gets in the way of you trying to help the other group move to new things and new places. Approaching them sleep-deprived really adds an extra hit to your ingenuity and generosity. And it's doubly disheartening when I plan on, and set aside, a chunk of time to work on some creative/musical stuff, and that time is stolen from me because I intend spend most of the daytime hours sleeping, restoring the sleep deficit that I had incurred for no good reason the night(s) before.

Oh, the headache? That won't go away? That you wake up with in the middle of the night and every morning and that you've had for hours? Forgot to mention that. That's nasty, too.

Judy Worsley, master acupuncturist, often asks her patients who are asking for treatment for a particular illness, "So, why did you give yourself this disease?"

I wonder how I'd answer that...