Sleepless Hypochondria
» Health
One of the disobliging traits of the body is the speed with which it can lose strength.
Sleeping upright for over a year has had an unexpected penalty. The muscles that support my upper body while prone have fallen out of condition. After two or three hours my shoulders hurt. I get up and check my email and try to read. Futile since I’m still mostly asleep.
And it exacerbates that paranoia known as hypochondria.
A touch of numbness, shortness of breath, trivial aches and pains leave me worrying they are signals of some new or reoccurring problem and that I should rush to the emergency room.
All these bodily irritations and old and familiar. Ignoring those I shouldn’t have has been the main way I’ve made myself ill during the last twenty years. But the bulk are just minor sensations of no import. Now I fret about it more.
And in the early morning, in a daze of interrupted sleep, I worry even more.
