vakkotaur | Entries tagged with sleep

I was awakened, an hour or so before the time I usually awaken, by an annoying high-pitched whine of some piece of electronics complaining. I couldn't quite place what it was. It seemed to be coming from the machine room, but a search of the room didn't turn up anything. It wasn't in the office and didn't seem to be coming from the bedroom. A bit of closing doors to various rooms revealed that the sound was present in all of them but not coming from any of them. It was coming from the attic. The UPS up there, for the network switch, was screaming. I don't know why, and at that time I just wanted it to be silent again. There was not a power outage, not even a blip of one. I got a bit more sleep, but it wasn't what it should have been.

Current Mood: tired

A few minutes before 5:00 AM I was awakened by a bang! that could have been something falling to the floor or could have been an electric discharge. I could tell which. Given the possibilities, I went looking and hoped to find something that had obviously fallen and not find something sizzling or smelling of ozone or with the "magic smoke" odor.

The good part was that I didn't find anything sizzling, didn't smell any ozone or "magic smoke" though I wasn't entirely sure of that last one. Everything seemed to be working normally. The bad part was that nothing stood out as obviously having fallen. The other bad part was that the DSL connection had gone out. Something in the basement couldn't have made a bang that sounded that close and loud, could it? Uh oh.

The stuff in the basement was working fine, except for the DSL modem which was power-cycled. The connection returned and I went back to bed for the next hour, not sleeping well due to the activity and still being unsure just what had happened.

A while later jmaynard, who is in the Atlanta area right now, was able to confirm that everything that should be running really was. The only thing that might have been out of place was a hard drive on the machine room floor, but there's a fair amount of stuff on the machine room floor. I mentioned that and after finding out just which hard drive Jay said that it had been on some shelving. That's a bit of a relief, though that the drive was able to slip and fall from where it was is a bit worrisome.

Current Mood: relieved

The U.S. or at least most of it will make the switch from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time this weekend. I seem to be preparing for the change without trying. I've been waking up a bit earlier each day for the past few days. I'm awake about an hour earlier than usual now. I'm also getting tired a bit earlier, which is only to be expected. Maybe this year when the switch to DST happens I'll be ready for it.

Current Mood: tired

I stayed up way too late last night, making sure the VCRs taped the Jimmy Kimmel show. $!#% ballgame throwing the schedule off. I got the show taped, though I likely clipped a bit of the intro on both tapes. $!#% ballgame throwing the schedule off.

The result is that I'm tired today. Tired enough to resort to drinking a can of Mountain Dew for the caffeine. Now I'm sort of awake. I'm still tired, but the nerves seem to be firing a bit more, if that makes any sense. It's interesting to watch myself appear to be awake but still not feeling like I'm really awake. The last time I really noticed this was in college after pulling a rare all-nighter and using way too much caffeine. I felt caffeine's other, non-stimulant, effects for a few days after that. I hope that doesn't happen this time - those effects are rather annoying. So no more caffeine for me today. Maybe I should have had something other than a Mountain Dew.

( Music abuse )

I think I'll take a nap after supper tonight.

Current Mood: not really awake
Current Music: "Mother's Little Helper" - internal twisted versions

I was up, for a few minutes anyway, early enough to see jmaynard just as he left on his way to his second appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel live show. I think I was more nervous about his appearance than he was.

That evening I recall being rather tired but not napping, determined to stay up and see if I could spot comet NEAT* since it was in an easy-to-find spot for me and the sky actually was going to remain clear. Around 10:00 PM or so I went out and did see it, at least with binoculars. I also looked at a few other objects in the sky and pondered a(nother) telescope again. I suppose I need to make up a list of stuff I think I need and get one item each week.

I spotted tenax on IM and confirmed I had his phone number and gave him a call. We geeked out for far too long. So long I saw Jay's appearance on the Kimmel show, twice (two stations air it at different times) but have yet to hear it.

Slept late, or tried to on Saturday. Napped on Saturday. Cleaned out the inside of the car, including the trunk, and got most of it taken care of. As usual with cleaning, a spot or two was missed. I did find four pocket combs that had gone missing in the last few years. They have since been washed for future re-use.

Sunday, well, another nap after noon. I did finish making up a couple audio tapes for the RCFM trip. I think the tape deck I have near the computer is a bit off-balance, but the tape will do for this and I'll compensate with the balance control in the car.

I checked out one tape some and went out to find supper and, in act of suicidal insanity, stopped at McDonald's for the double cheeseburger. I am still recovering from that mistake. It's a mistake I will not be making again.

I stayed up long enough to see Jay when he got back from his trip. That was pretty much the weekend. Despite my intentions of Friday, I didn't get anything much done on COLT and it feels like slept the weekend away, even if I did get a couple things done.

Next weekend will be taking care of most what I can for RCFM, and maybe visiting my sister. The weekend after, then I'll probably have reason to be tired.

* Mini-rant: Why are comets now named for the instrument or program that was used to detect them rather than the people who actually found them? It's like naming it "Comet Celestron" or "Comet Meade" rather than the person(s) using the device. If it's meant as, say, "NEAT Imaging Team" then I'd understand it, but I have yet to see that. I don't know of any spacecraft that has sent back a message, "I found a comet." The machines send back data which is interpreted by people.

Current Mood: a bit urpy

It's been about two months since I stopped using caffeine. I've noticed that I feel better, or perhaps I should say that mood cycling is more neutral. I'm not sure if it's due to the absence of caffeine or to other factors.

What happened before was that something would get me down, and I'd seem to stay rather down for some time. When I did feel good, it was all too easy to feel down again. Now, it seems to take more to get me to feel down, and recovery from that is shorter, and perhaps the low isn't as deep. One possible explanation is that giving up caffeine is a sort of poor man's Prozac. Caffeine supposedly affects brain chemistry in a way somewhat opposite of the recent family of anti-depressants. And supposedly some people adjust to this, and others don't quite adjust and are thus sensitive to caffeine's possible pro-depressant effects.

That's one explanation. Another might be a sort of placebo effect. I want something to happen, and so it does, and credit is given to something that changed. I doubt that this is it, as I didn't notice the result (if it is a result) right off. And I've wanted that result for some time. Or maybe I just sleep better. One thing I've noticed is that when first off caffeine, I went to sleep earlier. But now that I've been off it for a while, I'm staying up nearly as late as I did before.

But there are other things, not related to caffeine, that could be having an effect. There was kinkyturtle's visit, and seeing my family at Thanksgiving, seeing Gerry and the team again, and also the upcoming trip for Christmas. These things are changes from routine, and not bad ones. Also I've been actually having something of a breakfast recently, instead of just a multivitamin and water. When I ran out of multivitamins (After not having them for a couple weeks, there is a detectable effect. I'll spare everyone the details.) I didn't get another bottle of them but instead got a box of cereal (since most cereals are gorked up with various vitamins) and have a bit in the morning. It seems to work out. And it's now cold out, not hot and miserable, that could also be a contributing factor.

As noted in the last LJ post, I'm making progress on a project I've neglected, on and off, for a while. Between that and a couple things at work, I have a fair sense of getting things done, which certainly helps my mood.

I'm left wondering how much of what I feel and what I do is due to the absence of caffeine and how much is due to other things. Am I doing some of this stuff because I feel good, or do I feel good because I'm doing this stuff? Both?

I'm not going to suggest anyone else avoid caffeine. I don't know for sure that my ceasing its use is why I feel pretty good. But there's no sense in risking messing things up. I like feeling good, and if all I have to do is avoid caffeine, well, it's a cheap enough price to pay. Pass the icewater.

Current Mood: good

It's been a couple weeks since I've pretty much stopped using caffeine. Waking up seems to be getting easier, though that is hard to judge as it isn't unusual for me to wake up a few minutes before the alarm goes off. Getting to sleep at night is certainly easier, as well as a bit earlier. I think the quality of sleep is improving. Last night was the first time in a long time I didn't wake up in the middle of my night. I woke up an hour before I had to get out of bed instead, but it does seem an improvement.