Sleep deprivation

I'm incredibly shiny and happy, despite the fact it's been >24hrs since my last taste of sleep (a 2 hr nap yesterday afternoon). Since then, there's been a 12.5 hr nightshift segwaying into a gruelling 3 hr formal grievance hearing for H., acting as her supporter and a witness to certain statements made during her trial.

The rough background is that H., a teacher, was suspended from duty for an 'assault' at her workplace on a unsupervised toddler playing on her motorbike, which could easily have crushed him quite to death. At trial, H. was exonerated and the sheriff (judge) made a scathing summary that the prosecution should never have been brought, and that a valuable teacher's career had been ruined in the process. That's as much detail as I can reveal here, but today's grievance procedure concerning H's counterclaims of harassment, bullying and victimisation went well. She acquitted herself admirably. Go H.!

Sleep deprivation is known to improve depression- certainly true for me today. In fact I've noticed before that once dawn breaks on a nightshift, there's a surge of energy and 'hedonic tone' that lasts as long as one stays awake. Clinical studies support that sleep deprivation can make significant benefits to mood of patients with major depression. Indeed, one of the primary effects and ?mechanisms of anti-depressants is to delay and diminish proportions of REM sleep.

Heavy rain last night so only one yellow slug to talk to on the porch, but the patients were producing interesting signals meriting attention and promoting wakefulness. Later H.'s dignified performance at the hearing made both me and her union rep proud. I'll be going to bed shiny and happy.