Insomia

The thing about getting old is that you learn something new all the time. One moment everything is business as usual. The next, things aren't operating in exactly the same way. It's a constant audit. What's changed? What's no longer working?

My new thing is, that I've noticed my circadian rhythm has become extremely sensitive to any perturbations. I don't know if it's because over the last few years my schedule is pretty robust. Go to bed somewhere between 22:00-23:00, wake up somewhere between 05:30-7:00. Any shift to this schedule and my body clock goes haywire. I've had it a few times, where either I've stayed up too late. I.e. gone to bed at 3 am or 4 am and despite being extremely tired, what results is a handful of days of insomnia where I just can't get to sleep. Or more commonly, moving across timezones due to travel resulting in jet lag.

The return flight from Johannesburg to Hong Kong, we woke up at 3:30 am, in Cape Town, caught the 6:00 am flight to Johannesburg. Slept most of that two hour flight, woke up in OR Tambo International airport at 8:00, collected luggage and sat at gate waiting for 11:00 am flight back to Hong Kong, only to barely sleep on the flight and arrive in Hong Kong at 6:00, the following day. My body was confused, minimal sleep over the last 24 hours, and I had arrived back the following day. What ensued was 3 days of jet lag and insomnia. 

The insomnia was compounded by a few things, including a newly discovered tooth problem. Another tooth problem, you say? Well yes, this time, it wasn't the same tooth, but the molar directly opposite the tooth I had just had Root Canal Treatment (RCT) on. 

Mortality strikes you in many ways, this time in the form of a second RCT in the space of a month. I don't know if it's the cost, or the knowing that your teeth have failed which bothers me more. For future reference, the cost of a root canal is approximately 8,000 HKD, or 1K USD. The silver lining is, I now spend more time on dental hygiene and teeth that I had previously.