It would take me hours to fall asleep. I don't know if I can blame the many years of this practice for my insomnia but it definitely followed me forever after.
When I was 12, I moved back in with my mum. She did shift work which meant that I was often left alone over night. We lived in a one bedroom apartment so she got the bedroom and I had a hide-a-bed in the living room couch for my bed. This is when I discovered that I couldn't fall asleep early but the TV seems to lull me to sleep. I'd be up until 2AM without feeling tired at all. I'd lay down and put on the TV on some network that just did repeats of old shows so that they didn't hold my interest to easily. Sleep would come.
This bad habit has followed me into adulthood.
To this day, if my many sleep inducing medications are not working, I know I can go into the living room, turn the TV on to some boring show on Netflix and pass out on the couch. This does not yield actual good sleep though. It is tossing and turning and being woken up when Netflix asks the very annoying question, Are You Still There? Can this be turned off? Let me know if it can be! For 25 years I have been battling myself to sleep. I take so many sedating medication that my Doctor's are baffled how I get out of bed and actually function.
The thing I can't control is my sleep. And my neighbours. Recently I got new neighbours above me (I live in a basement suite in a lovely house in a quiet neighbourhood). The previous people upstairs were the daughter and son-law of the home owner. The new "tenants" are the landlord's son and his girlfriend. Based on the behaviour of his daughter and son-in-law, I was a very happy tenant. They were very quiet, in bed by 10PM almost every night. Out doing things on the weekends. I could barely hear them walking across the floor and I rarely heard their TV, despite having their living room directly above mine.
I had been spoiled.
And after a month of having no one else in the house besides myself, in moved the son and his girlfriend. Right from the first night I knew that my peaceful life was over. Every time anyone walks across the floor, it sounds like they are stomping or marching. They blast their TV so loud that I have to turn mine up to hear anything.
Last night was by far the worst so far though. I am sick. I am exhausted. I am in pain. And sleep is NOT coming easily.
I settled into bed at about 10PM, knowing that I needed extra sleep because of being sick. My cold medication was working, I could breathe. I read until around 10:30PM. Then I snuggled myself down with my dog and attempted to sleep. I was starting to feel really comfy and cozy when around 11PM, my oh-so-lovely upstairs neighbours decided it was time to have company and play xBox. I am instantly wide awake. For two hours I listened to machine gun noises and two men hoot and holler over their game. I finally passed out around 2AM. I woke up around 5AM since my body hates me. I decided to just stay in bed and attempt to rest at least. At 6AM, the girlfriend came into the bedroom above mine, which is not actually in use by anyone, but apparently is her shoe storage room. CLUNK, CLUNK, CLUNK as she pulls out several pairs of shoes and drops them on the floor. Exactly above my head. She finally decides on a pair of heels and then proceeds to run across the room in said heels. That was it. I was up. I could of slept for almost 2 more hours but no, it was all ruined.
These are things I cannot control.
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