The Lighter Side of: Total Exhaustion

I don't think it is any secret that many illnesses carry with them a component of terrible sleeping habits.
When pain and inflammation are so prominent in your life, the mind is often so focused on either fighting the pain or doing everything it can to be distracted from the pain, sleep cycles suffer. You sleep too much, or too little, you have insomnia or you cannot stay awake - or a paradoxical feeling of both, where it takes hours to fall asleep but then your sleep is never restful enough to actually feel entirely awake either.
Waking up several times a night, or falling asleep and snoozing through an entire day... or two... or three.
Body tired.
Mentally tired.
Physically tired.
Tired muscles, tired organs, tired eyes, tired mind.
And, of course, never in a consistent manner.

The Lighter Side of Total Exhaustion is that there are ways to sit and try to allow yourself to enjoy it.
You can lie in a bubble bath (only if you know you will not actually fall asleep). You can zone out to music, to a movie, to a video game - anything that requires zero concentration or analysis.
Requiring to do nothing has opened up some more discoveries: like videogames!
I have discovered the enjoyment of playing video games (when I was young I was too active in team sports and musical activities and school functions to even look in the direction of gaming systems). I played once in a while - almost always at the houses of friends - but they were never what I would consider to be a productive pastime, so I never really got into them.

Now, after experiencing several levels of total exhaustion, I have come to appreciate and enjoy unproductive time. Not all time has to be productive.
I know - it was very strange for me as well - but I have enjoyed getting acquainted with these new ventures they call "Wii" and "Xbox". Throw in a mind-numbing movie or two and I have myself an entire day of unproductivity - one fit for someone who experiences a painful level of exhaustion.