Sleep deprivation can cause serious issues for people who have any sort of health problems. Especially us epileptics, this is one of the biggest offenders and seizure triggers. I am writing this out of frustration because I just had the worst nights sleep I’ve had in a long time.

Last night our lovely downstairs neighbor decided to leave his dog alone for almost 8 hours, probably longer. And that poor dog started barking from 7pm all the way until 2am. Now, that is fucked up and cruel. This neighbor has also been horrible since he moved in, about 2-3 months ago maybe.

We knew there was going to be trouble when we saw him and his friends carrying in a complete drum set. And sure enough, less than two days later this guy has full on one man band practice in his apartment for all to hear. The speakers cranked, guitar, drums and whiney vocals. So, we handled it like kind neighbors and asked the property manager to tell him to stop. And he did, for a little bit. And then he decides to throw a rager on a Tuesday night. Again, handled it, we thought. Then the blasting of his stereo in the middle of the day for hours started happening, with one Beatles song and one Coldplay song on a continuous loop( that’s just torture at this point).

Now the dog thing happened last night and I am mad as hell. I had forgotten what sleep deprivation does to me. I was up until about 4 in the morning last night because of this entire ordeal. I woke up three hours past my pill alarm with a raging headache and a stomach ache. I also look like Gollum. I have spilled coffee on myself, thanks to my triggered myoclonic jerking, and also accidentally hit the wax melter in my kitchen and spilled hot wax all over my hand and my counter. My hand is fine and un injured but cleaning that shit up was hard. Also, I keep smelling rotten dirty rags because I Hallucinate Smells AKA Phantosmia (Thanks, Epilepsy) .

Every light on, including this computer screen seems so bright it hurts my eyes. So, my apartment is in almost complete darkness and the screen light is low enough to tolerate. And every noise seems so much louder than it is. I know that I will be feeling like this for the rest of the day.

So here’s what I do on days like these when I know I will be a super unhappy camper with some uncontrollable movement issues:

• Start the day off, no matter how late you wake up, with taking my meds and consuming extra water before coffee.
• I make my coffee, but not as strong and don’t have more than one cup. Excess caffeine at this point will just aggravate my body.
• I drink more water after my cup of coffee and I eat something hearty with it. No matter how much my stomach may not feel like it I eat at least a bagel. Getting food down is hard, but worth it because it can help take down the intensity of the tremors I am having and myoclonic jerking.
• Logical thinking is not going to be at it’s best so, sorry homework, not even going to look at you today. Reading will just make me fall asleep, even with my trusty alarm trick that I talk about in this post: How I Get Sh*t Done (very slowly) .
• I do something that relaxes me, which is writing. That is why I am writing this damned post. It may take me longer, and I’ve already taken a mid-day shower break for no other reason than I just got up and showered, but I enjoy doing this.
• No matter what, I do not nap. I am the type of person who naps for hours, once I fall asleep my body just shuts down and doesn’t wake up for any reason. So I don’t want to ruin tonight’s sleep because of a long nap.
• Once I am done with this I will keep myself distracted with something to watch at a low volume, and periodically I will eat properly and drink a lot of water until the day is finally over and I can sleep for a full night.
• Don’t go near use anything sharp or hot. Clearly hasn’t worked out so far, but I did not know how dangerous wax melters can be.

Don’t let anyone or anything get in the way of sleep if you are like me. My arms and legs feel like they have weights on them and I am moving at the pace of a not so cute sloth. I feel like I am about to puke so have a great day and don’t let any stupid fuck get in the way of your sleep.