Zombie

Yup, that's me. Since about a week and a day, I've been living in a sort of dazed state of mind. I walk around unaware of my surroundings, I bump into things, I drop things. We're not even going to mention my poor patients. Why am I like that? Because I'm asleep.

Well, my brain is asleep while my body desperately tries to go about its daily routine. That doesn't work. We need our brains, believe it or not. What has happened here is that my brain has actually shut itself down in an attempt to get some rest which has been denied to it due to lack of sleep. Thing is, I don't sleep at night.

I try to, I do, but the most I am able to accomplish is a half-asleep and half-awake state of trance in which I can't be quite sure what is dream and what is reality. This state is being interrupted about 15 times a night by a series of wide awake episodes, lasting good 10 min each, during which I am straining to concentrate and listen to where "that noise" came from. And apparently, that's not good enough for my brain.

So why is this happening to me? Well, it's a combination of three of my Eight Great as I call them. My eight demons: height, water, spiders, germs, closed spaces, flying, being alone, and the dark. With my husband gone off to the army, I am forced to battle three of those demons at the same time and that's at night when I am supposed to be sleeping. It's dark, I'm alone and the spiders are out to get me!

What exactly do you mean by institution?