Tiredness

When tiredness kicks in and all you want to do is fall asleep, but you know you cannot as you have to head to work, what do you do?

• Do you try and close your eyes at any available opportunity?
• Do you pop to the toilet in order to close your eyes as often as possible
• Do you dose yourself up as much as possible with caffeine to the point where you can see your heart rate soar?

There are many options but only one conclusion, sleep.

We are all human and we all need our sleep. As much as we would love to be able to skip a night here or there, we cannot.

We need our rest or cannot function as intended. We drift through the day with only one thought dominating our choices, sleep and getting to the point where we can drift off in peace and quiet.

This morning I woke up to that familiar feeling of being hungover.

Acknowledging that those steins were not the best idea on a work night and with no way of avoiding a trip to the office, how was I going to function?

Neruofen, water and a little extra nap and I was off to work.

No sympathy and the thought of feeling as though I was walking through a mountain of treacle, I concentrated on placing one foot in front of another.

One by one until I reached the station and then once on the train, to stare out of the window in order to visualise the day and get ready for whatever may be around the corner.

Being hungover is your fault and I will happily admit that. No one forced me to drink that much and no one forced me to continue drinking that much but I did.

It was a belated birthday evening out and as a consequence, was a lot of fun. Something that put a smile on my face last night and a frown in my thoughts this morning, especially knowing that I have another night planned before the end of the day.

Three days in a row of booze and fried food. Something that sounds very innocuous and almost a treat but something that at the age of 34 is a struggle. It is absolutely lovely to have these options and be included in these circles but I can safely understand and acknowledge that I am nowhere near as young as I used to be.

I am feeling my age to the point where anything over five pints of beer is a recipe for a hangover the next day, not to mention of adding any extra drinks to the mix.

We all have to get old at some point and I am happy to be at this point in life where I can admit that age has caught up with me. I cannot and do not wish to go out every single night as I quite frankly, I cannot afford to do so financially or physically.

Right now I feel exhausted. The work day as a result has been full of sleepy reactions and half conversations where all I have wanted to do is go home and go to bed, whereas I need to stay awake.

I have had a little caffeine but quite frankly attempting to eat or drink has been a struggle as the hangover has progressed between stages. I feel okay right now but am really not looking forward to more alcohol.

If it was not a work event, I would concede defeat and move on. I really wish that I had planned my boozing on different days to ensure space in between each event for recovery.

It is a skill that my wife has nailed, given that she merely lays down on the sofa each night and allows herself to casually drift off to sleep.

Not a care in the world and unless I have had a few drinks, it is something that I cannot do myself. I like to make the most of the day and when you are tired and feel as though you are dragging your body around, it is a struggle and you feel as though the day has been wasted.

I’ve been lucky in the sense that I have been able to concentrate on design work where I can allow myself to drift into the work. I have not been needed to analyse data or proof any copy and this is good because I would have struggled.

Even writing this 1,000 words is not as free-flowing as it typically is and I am doing it now to ensure that I do not need to do so when I eventually get home later. At that point, there will only be one thought on my mind.

Sleep is great and whilst there are other things we wish we could do, it is quite nice, isn’t it? To be able to close your eyes and wake up fully energized and ready for the day.

It is a miracle of nature and one by which I am excited to get back to today as whilst I did sleep yesterday, that was due to alcohol and that is not the best way to drift off. You sleep but it is highly disrupted and why my FitBit only analysed my sleep as fair and not good.

Being tired is annoying as you can do things to stimulate yourself but ultimately, these are only short-term gains. In the long run, there is only one cure for being tired.