How I Tricked My MS Brain Into Giving a Little More

Back in the day — way back — I did a bit of moonlighting from my day job in the U.S. Coast Guard. (It was an office position at the district commander’s headquarters.)

On the weekends, I hosted the Saturday overnight program on WBOQ — pronounced “W-Bach” — the Boston area’s No. 1 classical radio station at the time. I was young (enough) that throwing in an eight-hour overnight shift into my weekends while still working all week didn’t faze me — much.

The reason my stint behind the microphone, spinning classical favorites for the third-shift crowd, came to mind was because recently I needed to call on one of the old tricks I used to play on myself to get ready for those long Saturday nights.

Like anyone who commutes and works full time all week, I needed a bit of rest at the weekend. But like anyone in their early twenties, living in a house on the beach on the North Shore during the 1980s, I rarely got much “rest” at the weekends.

When 10 p.m. rolled around, things were just getting warmed up. And I had to get myself ready for a night of sitting alone in a dark radio studio and playing centuries-old music. Now, mind you, I loved and love classical (and baroque, and ancient, and modern) instrumental music. But it wouldn’t be classified as the stuff to keep one awake in the dark hours of the morning.

I came up with a method to trick my system into believing it was normal to be heading to work at 11 p.m. after doing the same at 7 a.m. the rest of the week.

How I Used to Pull a Night Shift After Working All Week

I’d shower and shave, then put on some lively music while having a coffee and a bowl of cereal with milk. I would dress and ready myself as if it were a weekday morning — even though I’d just spent the whole day awake (and was likely having a fun weekend day of it).

Somehow, it worked and I was able to finish in fairly good form. Then, upon arriving home on Sunday morning, I’d redo my faux-morning routine and be good for the rest of the day.

By Sunday evenings, however, the 38 to 40 hours on end caught up with even my young self.

The Trick Still Works, After a Fashion

That kind of stamina is so far in my rearview mirror that it’s hard for me to believe I once had it, from my current state of being.

It was on the evening that I was hosting my latest installment of The Unspeakable Bits, the MS Ireland webcast series  — this one on the topic of MS money matters — that I remembered my reset routine, and boy did I need it.

The hours leading up to these things can be a bit stressful, and I was also reeling a bit from “normal” MS stuff. I was, frankly, not sure how I was going to keep awake for the program, let alone be an engaging host.

The window for pharmaceutical intervention had closed hours earlier. I find that if I take a modafinil any time after noon, my sleep pattern suffers for the next week, or more.

If a shower and bowl of cereal could fake out my twenty-something brain for a nearly 40 hours, might it work for an hourlong webcast in my late fifties? Well, I am happy to report that it did.

In fact, coupled with the adrenaline rush of a program like that coming together, it did take me a bit to wind down and get to sleep that night. But adrenaline wears off differently than prescription medication, so I was fine the next morning.

Good to Have a Little Something in My Back Pocket

I’ll keep that old trick in my hip pocket in case I need a short reset for an event again. I might even recommend it for others who need to get through a couple of hours late in the day. That said, we all know there are days when just getting up, showering, and having breakfast is fatiguing enough to send us right back to bed.

We’re going to have to work on a better MS reset button!

Wishing you and your family the best of health.

Cheers,

Trevis

My book Chef Interrupted is available on Amazon. Follow me on the Life With MS Facebook page, and read more on Life With Multiple Sclerosis.