“Oh, sleep. nothing else could ever bring me such pleasure, such freedom, the power to feel and move and think and imagine, safe from the miseries of my waking consciousness… I was more of a somniac. A somnophile” (Moshfegh).

I am a sleepy girl. Anyone who has ever met me knows this. My mother knows this. My professors know this. Claudia at Liz’s knows this. And this past week, I decided to give myself a week of rest and relaxation…

I started the week off strong: I missed all my classes during the day (by sleeping through them). Calc was first at 10:10 am. I woke up at 8:00 and went back to bed. In my excuse, I was having a horribly intense POTs flare-up! Then I attended my French class on Zoom.

Then Tuesday (Halloween…) rolled around. I was not feeling any better. Oh no! So you know what I did? I didn’t go to class. I slept and slept and slept and slept. Because when you are chronically ill like I am, you need to give your body rest. Tuesday ended with me blacking out in class. I don’t think my professors or classmates noticed, but I could not see! It was quite scary. I walked home with my friend who picked me up from the Milstein basement after class was over and walked me home.

Wednesday and Thursday were full of naps, salt packets, and liquid IV. I don’t even remember Friday. I’m sure I slept.

But then it’s Monday again! (I got escorted off of the plane back into the city by paramedics as I had a flare-up on the plane.)

What do I have going on now? I have 2 midterms tomorrow. I have a lab report due tomorrow. I have a research paper due in a week. And I slept through all my classes last week. When I am asleep, I don’t do work. Duh. Sometimes I dream about what I will write in my physics lab report or on my calculus exam, but I’m not an efficacious sleep learner. So now, as I write this from a Milstein library second-floor cubicle, I have 12 different assignments rushing through my brain. 

But what’s worse than having a lot of work to do now and catching up on everything from last week? Passing out in class! 

If you or a loved one is struggling with POTs, hypersomnia, or a love of sleeping, go back to bed. Honor your body (your tiredness, your hunger, your headache, your cravings, etc.). 

Your resident hypersomniac and potsie,

Elaine xoxo

Sleep via Bwarchives