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/