from ruminating arse
to rerun relief - a fools guide to beating insomnia
Most people I’ve spoken to have idiosyncratic bedtime routines.
Some need the daily show.
Others need darkness and silence.
While others find solace in doom scrolling, tidying up or reading, I’m into reruns.
Top Gear, South Park, American Dad and Archer all soothe me to sleep.
But when things get tough and I’m really struggling only one thing works.
The Family Guy.
I’m not sure if its the show, the jokes or simply knowing that something that offensive exists on television that I find so soothing and reassuring. I know that no matter what social gaffs I’ve committed, the writers at The Family Guy have conjured up scenarios that exceed even my capacity to be an arse.
It gives me permission to relax and lean into my own idiocy.
Reruns to me play a similar role as ruminating. But where rumination replays painful, uncontrollable events, reruns offer nostalgic reminders and gateways to delight and escape.
Like a cutaway gag in The Family Guy, reruns vault me from the pain of reality through an absurd departure into irreverence freeing me to let go of the day.
Instead of replaying my day or disaster scenarios over and over again, familiar jokes, voices and Seth McFarlane’s unforgettable theme tune soothe me into dreamland.
Either way, I fall asleep wrapped in a soundtrack of human folly.
When you get right down to the greasy muck of it all, whether ruminating or getting lost in reruns, aren't we all just replaying our greatest failures, hoping for a laugh track that never comes?
Stay foolish my friends.
