Today, some institute called me to ask about my sleep habits. I had gotten a letter in the mail some days ago that I was one of the random people they would interview. I suppose without the official seals you would be reluctant to answer that kind of questions to strangers, about sleep and health.
What amused me was that, judging from my answers, I belong to the happy lucky minority who don’t have sleep problems at all. I am not constantly tired, I don’t lie awake for long after I go to bed and I don’t wake up earlier than I want. I don’t even feel tired after lunch all days, though it happens. (I usually do nap on the bus home though, but I am not sure that is considered a problem, perhaps quite the opposite.)
What they did not ask was what time I slept. I have Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, so I would have been in serious trouble if I did not have an employer who lets me go to work at 10. Â Before I got such an agreement, I was sick about half the time. So basically in today’s society I am severely limited in what jobs I can take, due to the DSLS. But they never asked about that, and there was no time where I could add information that was not in the questionnaire.
This is kind of typical, because I am kind of not typical. For instance, I recently got a consumer survey, which I try to complete. But it assumes that you have a TV, for instance. There is no ticky box for “don’t watch TV”, so I have to just make up answers. I’ve run into the same thing about the car. Nobody dares assume that you’re heterosexual in today’s society, but it is perfectly comme il faut to assume that you must necessarily drive a car and watch TV. Â Well, it is no biggie for me, since I’ve chosen my lifestyle, but I suppose if I were blind it would kind of tick me off to meet these assumptions again and again. Then again, if I were blind I would be limited to phone interviews. Not that these are any better.
Sometimes I make up my mind to write about the things that make me different from most people, but I usually forget about it pretty soon. This is mostly because I feel that I am the normal one and the rest are weird. When I play The Sims 2 or 3, my sims don’t have television, not because I want them to be like me but because I tend to forget that television exists or at least that anyone would want to use it. In Sims 3, which is the more realistic of them, I tend to also forget romance. It’s not like their days aren’t full already. And so are mine.