Reader's Wrist

I have trouble falling asleep. It's not uncommon for me to stay awake long enough to count down my alarm clock's set time like I'm ringing in the new year.

When I was younger, I'm sure my mom thought I had massive digestive issues, but really all those long late night bathroom sessions we me sitting on the floor reading until  I got tired enough to drop right off to sleep. Otherwise I would lay in the dark of my room with a thousand thoughts trying to be heard all at once. Growing up hasn't changed it either. If anything it's compounded the issue because now I have a job, bills, a dog ( a blog....) and a husband to think about.

Many's the time when my husband will wake up to me reading a book very, very late at night. I probably look normal, but I feel like my eyes are bulging from my skull, dry and irritated with Einstein like white hair sticking up all over my head. I usually imagine a tick involved somehow, but it manifests itself differently each time. But always I am clutching a book like I think he's going to snatch it away from me. He hasn't yet. He's probably afraid I'll bite.

I'm rapidly developing Reader's Wrist. My term for the mind boggling-ly painful condition that comes from laying on my side while holding my book upright with only the strength in my wrist. This demands that I hold my wrist at a nearly 90 degree angle away from the bed so as not to bend the pages, but also make it amenable to page turning. It should be an Olympic sport. Or at least demand its own branch of medicinal study.

Reading myself to sleep has become my version of drinking until I pass out. I can feel the relaxation creep up my spine as the dialogues in the book replace the one in my head. My head gets droopy, my movements are sloppy and my speech is slurred. My eyes burn and it becomes a physical chore to keep them raised. Finally, finally, I can slip off into empty, think-free, reading induced sleep.