Deep inside the reality of period insomnia

Bodyform | #periodsomnia

Menses on television

My lack of education or knowledge about these matters would soon be evident even as I dumped the change I collected after a purchase at a pharmacy in Cape Town into a collection can for the support of girls who might need such materials as they reach puberty.

Have we not been regaled with adverts of feminine products short of demonstrating how they can be applied or utilised? I have been distracted by much and learnt a few life lessons from the stories of the women asked to share the sense of freedom and autonomy gained when using these personal hygiene products.

Music to my distraction

Recently, it was a Bodyform advert with the background music I could remember from a distant past but could not place it. This apart from the fact that what I thought was skatting or scatting, which is to sing without words, was a mondegreen as I misheard and never really knew the words of the song.

My situation was not helped because the voiceover was much louder than the music and hence nigh on impossible to get a music identifier app to distinguish the different sounds and produce a result. My searches for ‘Bodyform advert 2022’ which would have worked for many other adverts failed to yield the result I was seeking.

That was until I took a phrase out of the advert and modified my search accordingly to ‘Sleep fearless Bodyform advert 2022’. Then I got a hit, with the music loud enough to run by Soundhound, my favourite music discovery app and then my search for information that had been on for just about a month was over.

Deep down inside

Now, the song by Little Louie Vega, released in 1993 as I remember from my nightclubbing youth, has the genius of repetition in the genre of house music that the other words in the lyrics of the song might well be expended with.

Deep deep down inside
Deep deep deep inside

This is punctuated somewhere with ‘All we need is love’, said four times and we are back to Deep Inside.

Towelling insomnia

Now, hear me out, I thought Bodyform was marketing tampons rather than sanitary towels, panty liners, and sanitary towels like I would know the distinct differences or benefits of any, but hey!

Then I wondered, how the advert agency, on receiving the commission to create an advertisement thought Deep Inside was the appropriate encouragement to apply these products.

However, there is a very important point being made in this Bodyform advert that I should not ignore for my levity, Period or Menstrual Insomnia, an issue that is probably taboo but needs to be discussed as I was until now unaware of it. Even with nature, there is discomfort, inconvenience, and distress. [Sleep Foundation: PMS and Insomnia]

I conclude by letting it all tail off here before I say something I cannot take back.

Hardrive ‎– Deep Inside [1993]

When bowels of inconvenience afflict thee

The travails of leg movement

Today was a basically a free day and one in which I finally decided to take advantage of the summery weather that had begun to show up from the last few days of May. When I stepped out for my walk this morning, the day was already bright and warm, the sun had risen and it wasn’t yet 6:00 AM, I soon regretted not going out in a short-sleeve vest and shorts, along with wearing a run visor to keep the sun out of my eyes.

Sometimes, going out for walks of about 10 kilometres or more presents the complications of the call of nature, some that can be dealt with easily and others too difficult that you have to break the event to rush back home or on rare occasions even soil yourself and seek a private route of shame back home.

The urges of bowel movement

It is unfortunate that there is literally no public convenience in the city except those in the shopping centres or hospitality venues, none of which would be open at that time of the day. I remember being unable to use one in a shopping centre just on the outskirts of town a few weeks ago because it had been boarded off for some reason.

It makes you wonder what people are supposed to do when a pressing call of nature would not take endurance as a timesaving option until you have conveniently reached a public convenience. In London, I found the same thing. The single-occupant public convenience was inaccessible and if it was, you needed coins. I thought everything was paid for with contactless cards or NFC (near field communication) mobile devices, like seriously in 2021, they need an immediate radical update.

Human nature is just nature

Suffice it to say that halfway through my walk, I still had another 5 kilometres to go when I was on a beeline for home to address the matter for which there was nothing more I could do but accept the limitations of my human nature, it may be age too, for it is not the first time either.

I read a blog written a few years ago about a male friend of a lady who was disgusted because the female host of a party had prominently made tampons available in the bathroom. The man may not have recognised what every female does experience; periods, sudden menstrual flows, the embarrassment of visible stains as a result, and the possible absence of sanitary wares to contain the situation. My occasional inconvenience is nothing in comparison, but I will ensure having that accessory in my bathroom for guests, that’s my lesson. [UpWorthy: What I realized about feminism after my male friend was disgusted by tampons at a party]