Not calm. Calm.

Woke up 3 hours after I’d slept. Clothes, pillow cover, bed sheet – all were wet from sweat. Heavy breathing. Heart racing away. Head overflowing with anxiety. No cause, just anxiety.

I usually remember all my dreams. The good ones, the bad ones, and the weird, confusing ones. I didn’t remember anything. The memory was blank. Head was just … black.

Sat up. Took off the duvet. Waited a few minutes to let the heart rate recover. Tried reading something on the phone to distract the head. Nothing worked.

Got up, opened the window, and put my head out into the cool night air. It helped a bit.
Left the window open.

Opened the Calm app. Took a few deep breaths. Then started a sleep story – the Stephen Fry one. Kept the phone on the side table, and lay down on the dry side of the bed.

Heard some of the story – something about lavendar fields in Italy, IIRC. The light breeze from the open window was cooling the room. Slipped my feet inside the duvet.I could hear Stephen Fry softly talking in the distance. I didn’t gather much of what he was saying. I pulled the duvet over my legs and waist.

Next thing I remember is the alarm waking me up at 5:30.

Thank you, Calm. Thank you, cool wind.

 

… music used to make me smile

A long long time ago
I can still remember how
That music used to make me smile

That’s how I wake up every day – listening to the first few verses of Don McLean’s American Pie.

I have three alarms set within 15 mins. The first one is set to American Pie, the second one is that horrible default alarm tone, and the third one is Sigrid’s Everybody knows from Justice League OST. I never get to the third one.

Continue reading … music used to make me smile

Two hours

That’s how much I overslept this morning due to experimentation with my alarm sounds.

I read somewhere that waking up to pleasant alarm sounds is the correct way to live. So, I gave it a shot. I changed my alarm sounds from the default alarm sound on Nexus 5 to a favourite song, American Pie.

It was nice. It was soothing. Too soothing. I woke up at 8:30, instead of 6:10 AM! :(

I missed my morning swim, and was sour/sad/angry till at least the yoga class at 11.

For tomorrow, I’ve changed the second alarm (6:00) to the regular, jarring alarm sound, while keeping the first one still as the song. Let’s see if this works.

Continue reading Two hours