Becca Jane St Clair

I can’t sleep. Not really because I’m not tired, I am, but because the neighbour came home early this morning and turned on the porch light. The houses are very close here, so close that if I stand on the bed to look out the bedroom window (it’s a high window), I can read the parking permit hanging from the neighbour’s rearview mirror.

I have a horrible time sleeping when there’s lights around that shouldn’t – I even had to tape a piece of electrical tape over the light on my external harddrive in addition to turning it against the wall because it’s light was so bright. If my screensaver goes off in the middle of the night from a cat touching the mouse, It’ll wake me up.

Sarah and Joe have a lot of electronics with lights on them. So many over near the TV that it looks like it should be sending landing signals or something between the green lights, the red lights, the blue lights and the orange lights. Those aren’t bright though, so they haven’t been bothering me…but the worst has been the street lamp outside their living room window and if the neighbour has on their porch light.

I haven’t posted photos of their house, but their house is built much like a studio apartment would be with an alcove on the side for the “bedroom”, and an open area for the kitchen and living room, so I can essentially look out the front window (living room window) from the bedroom as well as the bedroom window. If I really crane my neck, I also can see the kitchen window. It’s a nice set-up, and probably the best way to utilize the small space. I never saw the home before the remodel other than in photos, so I can’t really give a good comparison.

Anyway. So, the bright light from the front can be dealt with by me facing the bedroom wall. Which works, until there’s a light shining in that window.

Surprisingly, I’m okay with falling asleep during the day. I think it’s because the sun is bright in general and isn’t as focused as a street light or porch light. The bad thing is, I really don’t particularly want to be awake right now (at 5AM, there’s nothing to watch on TV and no one to chat with online, and I’m not sure I have the concentration to read right now). The good thing is, once the sun does come up (at 7:19AM!), I’ll be able to get back to sleep.

In July at home, the man across the street put in a bright blue halogen bulb into his lamp post, and the light from that kept me up for three nights in a row until I finally hung a blanket over my window at night.

I really need to invest in some kind of sleep mask, but somehow I’m sort of afraid that if I wear one I wouldn’t wake up if there was an emergency.

…And now the geese are making lots of noise outside. Uuugh, I’m never going to get back to sleep!