Where is my hand?

And if you look to your left, you'll see the blog that has been ignored to to lack of time, motivation, and school starting....



I think it's becoming a tradition that I begin every blog that way these days. What can I say? Life has become especially hectic since school started. However, life is going good, so I can't complain. I'm really enjoying the classes that I'm taking; English, Math, Public Speaking, and Kempo (it's like Karate, but faster hits, just not as hard). It's definitely a bit easier than last semester. Things with Andrea also continue to go well. We decided that seeing each other only once a week on Saturdays was not enough, so now we've both been putting a lot of miles on our cars to see each other. It's okay though, it's worth it. :)



The past little while has been a little weird though, and that's what I wanted to talk about today. I've been running quite low on sleep, and it's been difficult. Now, on my mission, I got used to being exhausted all the time, and usually getting less than 8 hours of sleep per night. This being said, I've been pretty much okay with getting up early for school and work and such. However, in the last two weeks or so, I've been lucky to get more than 6 hours each night. Some of you may be used that, and it's no biggie, but I suppose my body doesn't agree with it that well. The first while wasn't too bad, but as the two weeks continued on, my mind began to go downhill quickly. I began to not act like myself all the time. I often was easily irritable, or I would zone out a ton. Several times I found myself so locked in a stare, that I wouldn't even realize that someone was talking to me. It was really weird, I haven't had this happen before. I was really starting to lose track of reality.

It got so bad that I found myself drifting off to sleep easily. Normally once I'm awake, I STAY awake until it's time for bed. With this, my mind got so bad that I started to say things that I don't even know why I said them. I'd look back and think, "Why'd I say that?".,..not in a regrettable tone, mind you, but more of sheer oddity and confusion to myself. My mind got to the state that I would start to remember things that didn't happen, and if they did happen, it must have done so in one of my dreams. I would start to get confused with which was a real memory, and which one was just a dream I've had.

Then last night, while I was with Andrea, I began to drift off to sleep, and I started to speak. However, it wasn't in a dream...it was out loud. "Do you know what's scary about Provo to Orem?" I asked as I jerked out of sleep. I immediately realized what I had said, and started to laugh at how weird it was, as Andrea was in a state of confusion. A short while later, it happened again, "Where is my hand?". Yeah, it was getting pretty bad.

SO....I decided that my mind needed to be fixed, so I slept for over ten hours last night, and woke up at 1:10 PM today, and I already felt much better. It was such a good sleep, that I had a dream within a dream, and I can remember it happening. For those of you who have seen the movie Inception, that was the first thing I thought of when I woke up. I had a dream that I was hanging around with some friends, then fell asleep watching TV and onto a remote, and I began to dream in the "second level" of dreaming about going to a bookstore to look at things. After a while that dream ended, and I woke up in the first dream with my side hurting from falling asleep on a remote. After a while, that dream ended too and I woke up for real, and saw how long I had been asleep. It was crazy.

Anyway, I'm in no means complaining at all about my lack of sleep. It was purely by choice, and I don't regret missing out on sleep at all. I just thought I would share my experience with you.

What about you guys? Any of you have any sleep deprived experiences? What about dreams within a dream experiences? Feel free to comment.

Again, sorry for the lack of posting.