Nine things being severely sleep deprived has taught me:

If you’re standing with the freezer door open trying to remember what you’re looking for, it’s probably something obvious like toilet paper.

Just because you made three prototypes of your small and simple sewing project doesn’t mean you won’t make a major error during the final construction.

Never set your drink near anything that shouldn’t get wet. You will knock your water over. Often.

Take notes. Lots and lots and lots of notes. Then take notes about where you put your notes.

When you complain to your ten-year-old nephew about the major sewing mistake you just made because you were tired and he suggests you take a break, you should take a break. Of course, I kept sewing, then quit in despair, because I thought I’d screwed up again. I hadn’t, but was so tired and confused, I wasn’t able to figure out what I was looking at until the next day.

A checklist takes the stress out of remembering whether or not you’ve fed the cats, who tend to lie about whether or not they’ve been fed.

You can fall asleep in public settings and have mind-bending hallucinations of the people around you without doing drugs.

Be prepared to ask the same question over and over again. You will know you asked already, but you won’t be able to remember the answer. (See the note about notes.)

There’s a reason they use sleep deprivation as a form of torture.

(NOTE: I’m currently back to sleeping longer hours. Other health issues have confused things, making it hard for us to know what is causing my sleep problems, so until I get a few things sorted out, I’m going to bed when I’m tired and also taking naps. But I needed to write all this down because if I don’t, I’ll forget it.)