The house felt too bright for how tired I was

Dear Delyara, It wasn’t the kind of tired that sleep fixes quickly. It was that used-up, over-contacted, too-many-voices kind of tired where even light feels like one more thing entering the body. The kitchen lights were too sharp, the television in the next room was too bright, and the hallway somehow looked louder than usual even in silence. I moved through the evening half-irritated by things no one else in the house would even have noticed. That’s one of the lonelier parts of exhaustion. So much of it is invisible because the room itself hasn’t changed — only your ability to absorb it has. I put lamps on instead of the main lights and felt immediate relief. That small change nearly made me emotional. Maybe because it proved the day had been sitting on my nerves more heavily than I wanted to admit.