Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 14:01:17 -0500
From: N.A. Booko
Subject: Polar Vortex Causes Positional Narcosis
Having been stricken a couple of times with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, I thought there couldn’t be anything worse. Positional vertigo is when you put your head down on the pillow, the room starts to swirl around and you feel as though you are going to black out. Explained simply to me, it is some type of crystals in your inner ear, or somewhere in your head, have become jumbled up and will eventually right its self. Not so with benign paroxysmal positional narcosis. Or at least that is what I named it.
You must understand the problem of positional narcosis: For more than fourteen years, my bed has been in a North East corner of an eight by twelve foot room. The head of bed is to the North, foot to the South. On the left is a wall, probably twelve inches from the bed. At the end of the bed is an open area probably four feet. Bed covers are turned back to the left. When I go to bed, I sit on the edge of the bed, fall to the right and pull the covers over me. Many times, when I turn over to my left, my hand hits the wall.
When the cold winds of the Vortex started, I noticed right away that my head was colder than usual and very uncomfortable. I decided that if I slept with my head at the other end of the bed, it would cure the problem. I didn’t turn the bed around, i simply re-did all the pillow and all the covers. My head then to the South and my feet to the North. But when I turned back the covers, something was very different- even awkward. I still sit on the edge of the bed, I still fall to the right, but it puts me in an entirely different position and pulling the covers over me is really not easily done. I am facing the wall. When I turn over in bed, I over estimate pulling the covers back over me and they sometimes end up on the floor. Many times I awake during the night and cannot figure out where I am- and even sometimes, who I am.
It didn’t go away by its self. I put it back like it was and will be happy until the next Polar Vortex blows in.
N.A. Booko
(N.A. Booko lives and sleeps in Chatham County)