Having recently been ill, flat on my back for about a week or so, suffering from two ailments that I originally assumed was just one, I'm finally on the road to recovery. One ailment has passed, so to speak, the other not so much. I'm not quite 100% yet, but just enough that I think I can form a reasonable thought or two.
Anyone having suffered from fever or sleep deprivation may relate to the following experience:
My understanding of the human brain and its hemispheres is that one side is logical, the other creative, and generally work well in conjunction with each other. That is until you are ill and then all the rules go out the window.
For instance, when ill, the logical part of your brain tells you to sleep and the more you sleep, the better you will feel. During sleep, your creative part looks after dreams and such, a necessary part of sleep.
At the onset of my illness, I was unable to get a full and restful sleep due to pain and what slumber I did get was merely 'twilight', where you are not quite awake nor fully asleep. After 36 hours or so, I was so exhausted I tried my damnedest to fall into a deep slumber.
Yeah, right.
Be it the fever or lack of sleep, or combination thereof, there is a third part of your brain that goes all "Riddler" on your ass when you are finally drifting away into unconsciousness. Well, it's not really a separate part, but more of an offshoot of your creative side - like that spoiled, rotten cousin who would pull tricks and cruel pranks on you when you were a kid and snickers at you like an evil character from a Stephen King novel.
Logical: "Oh would you paleeese settle down already? We're almost asleep."
Creative: "I'm tryin', but I think I had a brain fart and, well, it was kinda icky."
It: Prancing around like Jim Carey in the Batman movie series, giggling, "Riddle me this, Batgirl!"
This is when those weird dreams come in (granted, dreams are strange enough). My most prevalent was that of a computer card game which, try as I might, I couldn't close down - the "x" box kept disappearing. I finally realized I was dreaming and had to awake totally to try and think of something else to replace this 'twilight' dream. Eventually it worked but this was after 48 hours of sleep deprivation.
Needless to say, and after finally getting some semblance of needed rest once the weird dreams subsided, I believe I've more or less recovered from my illness, both physically and mentally.
It: "Hee hee hee. Think again Batgirl! I'm still around and I'm still gonna screw with you."
That must have been awful. Any illness that put images of Batman Forever into my head would be unbearable.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're feeling somewhat better. You and MikeWJ seem to be suffering similar bouts of exhaustion and hallucination.
I only used the "Riddler" because I couldn't remember the name of another maniacle character I so wanted to use. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteYeah Mike - I swear, we have the same thoughts at the same time. Creepy.
Did somebody say sleep deprivation? I've had less than 6 hours a night for about two weeks now, with a few 3-4 hour nights thrown in for good measure. Like you, I can't tell reality from my dreams anymore. In fact, this may not be a real comment that I'm leaving. It may be a dream. If it's a dream, I'm terribly witty, of course. In reality, I imagine it reads something like this: mmpf, burble squat, mmpf, n-mmpf. Piffewackey. Yes, please do that again. Mmpf. Uhmm. Oh, my.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Hey Mike - thanks for dropping by.
ReplyDeleteI'm still a little dopey too - I went to get a second cup of coffee this morning and started to put ice cubes in my cup.
Well, if you're getting a straight 6 hours sleep, you're ahead of me.
Shouldn't it be "Pifflewackey" instead of "Piffewackey"?? It just sounds better that way.
Good luck with your classes, and congrats on the A's.
Pifflewackey is correct. Unless you're piffewacked. Then you drop the "l." It's another one of those obscure English rules that I hate.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! I didn't even know that was a word! Now I'll have to look it up to see what it means.
ReplyDelete