A Night of Two Halves

You find me writing this after one of the worst nights I have had for a long time, which just goes to prove that, no matter how much you think you have conquered your symptoms, they always have the opportunity to kick your butt every once in a while.

There was no prior knowledge of this attack this evening. Sitting watching the TV, it was a night like any other. At 9:30 PM, Belle, my British bulldog, decided it was time for bed. As she does most nights, this triggers a banana chop for her to take her medication and the signal for me to take mine too. Mine includes tablets to control my restless legs syndrome (RLS).

Going through my routine, then WHAM!

Lying in bed, doing all the things you're not supposed to do for a restful night's sleep, like checking my phone; this, unfortunately, has become part of my nighttime routine. Good or bad, I still have to ensure it's done!

Belle tries to dig my bed up in an attempt to get her pillow comfortable. Despite the previous months of me telling her, she has finally found out pillows and cushions are actually comfy!

After checking all the social media 15 times over, reading the news, checking emails, and maybe even sacrificing a goat to the Devil, I finally start to feel sleepy. Then I feel it, no hardly discernible creepy feelings. It was a full-on SLAP! Here ya go! Have some of that!

My right leg is worse than my left

My right leg is my worst affected. I sometimes wonder if it is because I have a dodgy knee on that side. Who knows. I seem to have considerably more issues with that side than the other.

The nighttime hokey-cokey started in earnest, "You put your right leg in, your right leg out, in-out, in-out, and then you shake it all about." Exactly what happened!

Using all the tools in my toolkit

Uncharacteristically for me, I laid still or at least tried to. It's quite amazing how unable you are to physically lay still. The feeling in your legs cannot be controlled by mindfulness. No matter how much I tried to distract my thoughts and think of other things, the creepiness overwhelms it all.

Putting my leg up against the cold wall, stretching my leg muscles didn't really help. I even tried to touch my toes to stretch them out further. That didn't help one iota. I gave up, hurriedly deciding to take another tablet of my RLS medications to see if that has its usual effect, sleep in 30 minutes.

Another hour ticks by

Bed beckoned once again. I headed to join Belle, who is so used to my nighttime antics that she didn't even rouse from her slumber, and started the check, check, and check again of the social media feeds.

After being invested in reading a long read news report for 35 minutes, I realised I had been lying there, fidgeting, for well over an hour all told, no sign of sleep on the horizon.

Going all in with my medication

By this time, it was almost 3:30 AM, the frustration of not falling asleep, alongside the failure to find any relief from my RLS, I decided to go all in and take a medication that had been prescribed for any breakthrough pain I suffer with my fibromyalgia. It has the helpful additional effect of making me fall asleep and stay asleep.

Capsule taken, back to bed again. Poor old Belle huffed at me as if to say, "Okay, Mummy, give it a rest!" Now heading to YouTube and TikTok on my phone to watch endless cooking and crafting videos, those sites have the ability to chew up hours of time, I checked the landline phone by my bed, and it shone 5:54 AM!

My sleepless night comes to an end

Not asleep, not even drowsy, no sign of nearly knocking myself out by dropping my phone on my head (a regular occurrence!), the birds were starting to sing! Neighbours heading off to work and taking dogs out for a walk, totally unaware that I had been lying here all night awake!

Seven AM came and went. I gave up on the "obviously not arriving" sleep, got up, woke Belle up, and started my day.

How irregular! I hope it doesn't happen again soon!