Title: Not Sleeping
Date: 07 July 2022

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Checking up on the phlogs today, I read nm03's update about "Summer Fatigue"
or "natsubate" [1], and while I wasn't previously familiar with the Japanese
term, I am definitely feeling that summer fatigue this year.

I've heard people talk about "Seasonal Affective Disorder" as primarily
occurring during the winter, but I've always had a harder time dealing with
the summer heat and long days than the cold and dark of winter. The past
several weeks I have gotten significantly less sleep than I'd like - some
nights as little as 4 hours or so - and it's having a significant affect on
my overall mood. I feel myself being crankier, less cooperative, and
confrontational at times.

I should try cranking up the A/C more, but I hate the noise and the over-use
of electricity, pollution, etc. I read today an article about the idea of
"supercooling" your home in the evening to "chill your home right down to
the 'bones' of the building" [2] but I'm not sure that exactly works in an
apartment where the frame, walls, etc are connected directly from my
apartment to the ones above and below me. I also am not on the variable rate
by hour plan with my power company - and their bill calculator says I would
have paid over $200 more based on my last 12 months on a variable rate plan.
Still, I might try decreasing the night temperature because, if nothing
else, I might sleep better.

I also need to get back into the habit of making some nice mugicha - I
stopped that when we had our last run of cooler temperatures. It really
helps me cool off quickly, although I'm not sure if that's anything
intrinsic to the mugicha or just a natural effect of drinking a bunch of
cool liquid that's been in the refrigerator for two hours lol. Either way,
I find it refreshing and am actually going to wrap this post up here so I
can go put a litre of mugicha in the fridge to brew.

Tanabata wishes,

trdaisuke

[1] gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/nm03/2022/JUL2022/entry_6
[2] https://www.howtogeek.com/814826/cut-your-summer-electric-bill-by-supercooling-your-home/