You Know You're Stressed When You're Simultaneously So Tired But Can't Sleep
It's the dreaded paradox: exhaustion to the point of depletion, yet sleep seems a distant luxury. Your mind races in the quiet stillness, an unwelcome marathon that runs endlessly in the night. You may be intimately familiar with this feeling. Sometimes it can feel like sensory overload. A computer with dozens of tabs open, constantly refreshing, with the CPU working overtime. That's akin to what's going on in the minds of people who cannot stop their thoughts from swirling around. This constant thinking can lead to stress, anxiety, and, you guessed it, sleep deprivation.
Furthermore, the inability to filter out 'background' information can often lead to a focus on the wrong things, and not help the situation at hand. Something about an old saying - It's not so much that the trees obscure the forest; rather, each leaf demands individual attention.
All this leads back to our opening statement - the sensation of being so tired yet unable to sleep. I naturally would love to stay in bed all morning, but then, I blink, and the day has disappeared.
Don't feel guilty for staying in bed or not though. Self care does have to work in the framework of you, These moments alone won't cause permanent damage either way.
March on, do your best, prevail.