Insomnia

How long can you go without sleep?

1 week? 2 weeks? 3? 4?

I'm not sure, but I am on the verge of dying, I can feel it. Once again I lay in my bed, suffocated by the amount of sheets and pillows, looking up at the patterns that my lava lamp makes on the ceiling. My eyelids go heavy, but never stay closed. My body goes weak, but I can always feel it twitching, never resting. Oh, look. There he is. My son, peering through my bedroom door, like he does every night.
"Dad, come and tuck me in my bed please," he speaks softly, with his little child voice. I turn to my wife, but she is asleep, like she always is, curled up into a ball on the other side of the bed. Pulling myself out of the warm covers, I open the door to see his worried face, his eyes covered in water, and his hand clutching tight around his teddy bear. Walking into his room with him following close behind, he curls back up into the sheets.
"Goodnight," I kiss him on the forehead and cover him up underneath. But suddenly, the sheets fall down flat, with nothing underneath them. This happens every night. Is this what happens when you fall asleep? You disappear? Of corse I wouldn't know, would I?
Returning back to my room, I pick up the book on my bedside table and start to read.

Insomnia- What You Need To Know

Insomnia is difficultly sleeping or staying asleep for long enough to feel active in the next morning, even if you have had the opportunity to go to sleep.

Most common symptoms of insomnia are:
difficulty falling asleep
waking up during the night
waking up early in the morning
feeling irritable and tired and finding it difficult to function during the day

Wait, I've read this book before! Oh wait, yes, I remember. I read this book every night. I should know by now.
By the time I have finished reading it again, rays of sun leak through the blinds. I do not pull them up, just in case I wake up my wife. I go to check on my son, but he is not in his bed, like usual. Maybe he has gone to play with his friends.
I fill up the kettle to make myself some coffee, when there is a ring on the doorbell. Why is this? No one ever comes to visit us.
"Hello?" I say, opening the door just enough for me to see who is there.
"Hello, we have been getting reports for a horrible stench has been exiting your house, and that no one has seen your wife leave the house in about a month. We must investigate the house immediately," without warning, the two strong and tall men push past me and into my house.
"My wife... She is ill, really ill, and has not been able to leave bed for a while, sir," the click of the kettle goes off, signalling that the water has finished boiling.
"Before you begin, would you like a cup of coffee each?" I ask, trying to distract them from searching. Wait, why am I trying to distract them? What have I done?
"Oh no, we must begin right away," the two men make their way straight to the bedroom. There noses scrunch up in disgust at the smell. I've never really noticed it before.
Just admit it. A voice whispers in the back of my mind. Admit it? Admit what? Just admit it! Surely they must hear it to, they must! It's so loud, even a deaf man could hear it from a mile away! They have mind reading machines, don't they? They do- I know they do!
Admit it.
Admit it.
Admit it!
ADMIT IT!
"Alright!" I scream, clutching my hair, trying to stop the ringing in my ears.
"I admit it! I did it! I killed my wife and my son! I just couldn't live with them taking up my space and time! I'm sorry I did it I did it I did! Spare my life please! God have mercy on my soul!"

So here I am, claustrophobic in this tiny cell room. Do you think that I am mad? Will you forgive me? Please! Please have mercy for me! Would you say that I am mad?

By Jasmine Barton