The Day After the Night Before

I’d like to ask if you can remember the night before the day before the night before the night...?

I am pretty sure this is how each week transpires. They all blur into one another. The only discernible difference is the colour of the sky.

Stealing sleep during the day

Normality for sufferers of restless legs syndrome (RLS) like me is making the most of the time we can actually sleep, which usually happens during the day. This means our lives are turned on their heads.

When most others are working or spending time with friends and family, we are having a deep and meaningful relationship with our mattress and duvet.

What do we do during these waking nights?

Endless nighttime entertainment

The arrival of streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix (I have both, along with Disney+) make long nights a little easier, depending on the setup in your lounge! Flapping legs around, wandering to and fro behind the couch, it is probably a lot easier to watch something you know by heart. Unfortunately, due to the hours that sufferers of RLS keep, it pretty much excludes every single Disney film (no Circle of Life at 2 AM).

Four-legged company

Having company also helps me. It might be disturbing for the dog to spend all night keeping your attention by jumping around on the furniture as if it were a trampoline, but at least they can keep the same hours as their owner! Nobody thinks twice about a dog sleeping all day.

Sprawling out

Missing my compadre, as I am, I have taken to laying on the floor with my legs up and over the front of the couch cushions. This gives me enough room to waggle them around whilst watching a film upside down. I hear you exclaim, “That cannot be comfortable!” Well, I wouldn’t recommend it for a long length of time as the blood drains from my legs.

No late-night caffeine

Lately, I have made the conscious decision to remove caffeine from my diet. I removed ordinary teabags about a year ago, along with caffeinated coffee, with the aim to actually spend a night in bed with my RLS surprisingly sleeping! Herbal teabags have been introduced, as a large number of them help with other body issues. I find peppermint is great for an unhappy stomach.

Is blue light making it worse?

With the amount of technology we use, I began to wonder if our blue screen use exacerbates the strange hours we keep. Lying in bed on the sofa, on the floor, or wandering around the lounge inevitably is accompanied by a mobile smartphone. Heeding the warnings issued by doctors around the earth, is it possible too much blue screen at the wrong time could change my circadian rhythm, altering what my body sees as a "normal" day?

No easy choice

So, do you decide to reset your body's natural systems by going to bed (even though your legs are screeching like a siren on a rock), so you can lie there, flapping your legs and/or arms about?

Or do you use all the technology known to man/woman to give yourself an entertained night whilst you resemble a car forecourt tube man?

I know where I stand. Or is it sit? Or maybe even roam? When in Rome...!