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A Sleepless Night

    by Alex Dimmig

    written Memorial Day 2003

Not being able to sleep at night causes my life great pain the next day. I have to feed myself on caffeine and large amounts of sugar. It does not help the fact that in the morning I have the responsibility to sit in front of 4 television monitors and watch the on-air signal at my job for 8 straight hours. The room in which I sit is also dimly lit and usually very little to do, other than watch TV. If I can stay motivated during the day it helps out a lot but you know that feeling you get at about 5 hours into your day, feeling tired and ready to do something different. I wish I could do something different at that point. About the only thing I can do is walk the building to stay awake, and at times that seems pointless. Then at the end of your day your feel even more whipped than usual. All you want to do is sleep when you get home. After that the rest of your sleep schedule is off by hours and even days. Hard habit to break.

So you might ask what is causing your sleeplessness? Sleeping late the previous morning, drinking caffeinated pop all day, etc? Maybe some of that basic stuff and maybe much, much more. I tend to not sleep do to my brain overworking itself well past my allotted bedtime. I could be stress from work, owning my first home, organizing the mess from unpacking, taking on a new responsibility with my production company here in Michigan, I don’t really know. Sometimes my brain attaches itself to something that I read earlier or a problem I’m dealing with at work. The best way I tend to deal with this problem is doing what I am doing now, writing.

Nothing should be bothering me at the end of May, everything that I am involved with is running smoothly. Work at the local FOX station is good, no real serious complaints, my video production company, “Eat’n Apple Enterprises” is operating ok, just purchasing new equipment for a new venture I will be taking on in June, the nonprofit in Toledo; “Contact Outreach International” I have put thoughts on hold during my move and other press concerns. Currently there is no issue their besides finishing up the filing of our 501(C)(3) papers with the IRS. I first will have to dig them out of the boxes sitting in my now cluttered office. No worries!

I’m still up and not really tired, just fully aware that I have to be at work in the morning at 7:30am. I have to work Memorial Day this year, I can’t blame anyone but myself since I did ask my boss for the time. I guess I only have two real choices; either try to sleep for a couple hours or get some work done and drink my coffee. I know that if I lay down nothing will happen so I guess I’m stuck with getting other work done. Hope I survive the day tomorrow. Thanks