I go insane at night

And forget everything the next morning. No, I’m not partying nor drinking, nor even hanging out with people. I’m looking at my math homework now, which I was struggling to finish last night. Right in the middle of a math problem, here’s what I have written, in pencil and scrawled in strange shapes, as if these words were numbers or mathematical symbols.

“Has a plasma TV”
(Immediately to the left of this is a double integral.)

“high-response really cool all.”

“If you’re busy this week, [break] good for all”

“details on Google”

“belows thanksgiving”

“Floor [unreadable] mtg”

This is so weird that I have to scan this. It’s shocking.

math-homework.jpg

Seriously, I can’t believe I wrote this. I must have a second mind that takes over when I stay up too late. Maybe it’s my night-time mind. Normally, this stuff would stay in my head: it would probably be processed to create my dreams. But when I don’t sleep, there’s no chance for dreams, so I get this dream-like state. And it’s really a second mind separate from my daytime one: I don’t remember this. It’s vaguely familiar, but I do not remember it.

Update: the next page has the word “Sorority” at the top, followed by “11/6/06”. I have no idea what that date has to do with anything (this was written yesterday, 11/15/06). Oh, and it has “Intel” randomly thrown in the middle, too.

9 Responses to “I go insane at night”

  1. katy says:

    I have had similar experiences. When I was in college taking notes, half asleep, the notes do not make sense. Or when I am telling Amy a story, and I fall half asleep, I start to say weird things. Interesting that in my mind, it made sense, but what comes out doesn’t.
    What I want to know is, are your math answers correct? Did you not realize those random notes were there till the next morning? It is amazing that while you are half asleep writing jumbled words, there is a part of you that can think clearly enough to solve math problems. Thinking back, did you think you were working on math straight through or did you realize you fell asleep along the way?

  2. Henry Yuen says:

    Dude that’s kind of scary. I thought I was crazy.

  3. andrew247 says:

    I can’t read it very well, but from what I can make out, you have:

    r^2 = 2
    r= 1/2

    The square root of 2 wasn’t 1/2 last time I checked. :?

  4. Elliot Lee says:

    andrew247, yes, I had noticed that too. The math is wrong.

  5. Sam Park says:

    That’s awesome.

  6. […] It’s been awhile since I wrote a Midnight Message. I believe my last one was two weeks ago. Quit a few things have happened since then. I’m mostly getting caught up in schoolwork. I’m finding that I really dislike it. Maybe it’s just because I’m tired, but I think I’d learn just as much, if not more, by learning on my own. Maybe Theo’s attitude is rubbing off on me. Maybe I’m just getting discouraged by the fact that I have a research paper due yesterday still not done. Whatever it is, I am tired of school and it will be a welcome relief when winter break comes around. It’s not like I really do all that much studying, either. Most of the time, I’m off doing my own thing. But perhaps I should make better use of my time. […]

  7. Vince says:

    I think you are right when you say that you think what you wrote were thoughts that were supposed to be placed in your dreams. My theory on you writing the date 11/6/06 is maybe you had to remember it that day to write down on your paper in class or something. I often find myself not knowing the date, and then i have to write it on like every piece of paper i get.

  8. Scott says:

    I feel the pain. Have you tried seeking math homework help online? I was with htpp://www.clickandclimb.com and their tutors really made math easy for me. The best part- it was flexible and affordable.
    Hopefully that will help with the midnight messages.

  9. Max says:

    Sorry for bumping but..
    Something i think most of you missed is that this is not about math
    Starting to have the same issues latly. have something i guess you could call conversations with myself nighttime. including crazy scribblings, putting things in strange shapes, memories of doing quite wierd stuff. “waking up” in situations i have no idea how i ended up in (ea. in the workshed with a dotted line across my arm and a saw in the other hand…)

    I can remember the overall feel of the situations(atleast some?) but never the point of it nor what is was acually happening. sometimes it feels like i wake up, check the date and notice that i got no idea where the last few days went. have i been sleeping? ask friends, ask work. normally i’we been meeting both.

    Had sleeping problems for quite some time, i’we always been able to keep them under control tho, but now i cant even tell if i’we been sleeping, am sleeping or what the hell.

    you can always head to your doctor. don’t try stillnoct or zopiclone tho. if you dont fall asleep within about 10-60 minutes, I atleast go apeshit.

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