For starters trying to fill that inappreciably massive void left by a complete and utter lack of sleep becomes almost a neurosis, a game, a hobby and an obsessive desire all rolled into one. At first it's not so bad, you have plenty of time to catch up on your backlog of TV programs and movies and reading and the like. But you'd be surprised how long 14 episodes of House DON'T last when you cram them in back to back over the course of one day/evening/night, and yes, I know it's roughly 14 hours, but that's from the perspective of someone living your average 18 hours awake, 6 hours asleep schedule, when you're looking down the barrel of 192 hours, 14 hours is a piss in the ocean.
Word to the wise, don't image google "piss in the ocean", apparently there are pornstars who's name's contain the word "ocean"
And that only works for the first two or three days, because after that my friend, your ability to concentrate goes out the window quicker than Tiger Wood's bit on the side when his wife get's home. After three days you'll find you phased out halfway through a paragraph in a book and have to go re-read it, but by day five you'll notice the end credits rolling on The Big Bang Theory, whilst swearing to yourself you'd only just started watcing Scrubs five minutes ago. Nope, you've just phased out through 2 episodes of scrubs and 2 episodes of The Big Bang Theory, and possibly even an episode of Glee (if you're lucky) and not even noticed it. Ironically I have found something of a cure for this, caffeine. At first I abolished all caffeine intake in an attempt to try and return to regularly planned sleep routines, that was two or three insomnia cycles back now, what I have learned is that I am going to be awake no matter what, and with sweet sweet caffeine I can just about maintain levels of concentration above a ritalin lacking ADHD suffering 4 year old on a week long Cherry Coke binge.
Just like this, only with a beard, and with the physical strength and mass to actually go through the walls said 4 year old would bounce off of...
So with that in mind, you can kiss goodbye to anything like learning a new language, or skill or likewise, which was one of my first ideas. Finally decided to get round to learning Spanish on YouTube, and I shit you not I'm surprised I didn't get an e-mail from them asking me why I'd watched "Learn Spanish - Lesson 1 - Basic Needs" like twenty-thousand fucking times before I went back to watching people brain themselves on skateboards.
The other problem you encounter is that your "down time" is now during the day, the day is when you can do stuff. Let me tell you, there isn't a piece of flat-pack furniture currently unassembled in my flat, nothing is broken any more, no piece of electrical or mechanical equipment not taken apart, fixed and fiddled with, no carpet unhoovered, no painting unhung, no route to and around the local park/cemetery/shopping centre/etc, unwalked and unplanned on Google Maps. But for the most part these are all tasks only accomplishable during the day, whilst I have no problem hoovering at 4.30am, my neighbours would pitch a fit, as well as this being prime TV time.
Talking of "prime TV", I've been watching a lot of new programming lately, and I have three burning questions, 1: What in the name of sweet fuck is a "Snooki" and why have people allowed it onto television. 2: What in the name of inglorious fuck happened to children's TV? Maybe I'm looking back on it through rose-tinted glasses, but come on? 3: Someone get Gloria Hunniford off the TV, she's old and need's a rest.
Please, make it go away...I'm fairly certain this is why they invented shot-guns...
But I digress, so night becomes your "active" time, a time slot you have to try and fill with something, if you've gotten over the attention span issues, there's always pre-downloaded or recorded television and the like, but I tell you now, they don't churn out episodes anywhere near fast enough to keep up with constant, relentless grind with which I get through them, same goes with books, good ones atleast, I still refuse to re-read the copy of "The Da Vinci Code" I accidentally purchased drunk (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it), it shall sit on my bookshelf, unread, for all eternity (or until I move) as a warning against buying shitty books, and as a punishment for being shitty, a literary naughty corner if you will.
You see, there's a decided lack of 24 hour and Late Night places in this country. In the US, there's always some 24 hour dive bar or diner you can go kill a few hours at, but the exception of the odd Casino, something out of the question due to a certain lack of monetary funds, and "Massage Parlours", something out of the question due to a certain presence of dignity (and also a lack of monetary funds) there's shit all to do in this fair town we call London.
No one looks this happy in a casino at 6am...
Which makes no sense, because you see I've been doing a little research. When you put together the amount of people suffering from recorded cases of Insomnia (I'm guessing there's plenty more unrecorded) and people working in industries outside of the normal "open hours" of most venues, most cities on this planet pale in comparison with good old London town. Why has this not been rectified?
So with those out the window, and not wishing to disrupt anyone else with your endless awake-ness, you become a goddamn one man unstoppable behemoth at tetris, solitaire, pac-man and the like....
Seriously, do NOT fuck with me at solitaire any more...if that's even possible
Secondly, another thing you start to notice, is you start talking to yourself, and more-so to inanimate objects, possibly a sign of the onset of psychosis, I grant you, but it's entertaining and gives you something to do.
Now I've always kind of been one for this, many a time I've found myself calling myself a "stupid bastard" for putting a irremovable part of something I'm putting together in place before I need it to be irremovable, or a "silly wanker" for dropping something heavy and hard on something I didn't particularly want something heavy or hard dropped on. But at some point you start discussing your television viewing schedule with the remote control, or asking your pantry whether it thinks you should have used normal paprika or smoked paprika in whatever it is you're cooking...
To be fair this image is a little dishonest, no one ever calls me anymore
Which is just plain stupid because it's ALWAYS smoked paprika...
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