TL;DR my apartment building has 'water hammer' and apparently my suite gets the most intense hit of it. It's keeping me awake at night and I'm going crazy.
After reading late into the evening and then enjoying some quiet sitting in the candlelight, I finally went to bed around 11, planning to get up at 6, or maybe 630 and go to work a little early. I curled up on my comfy queen-sized mattress with the memory foam pad on top, pulled my 400 fill-power down blanket over me and closed my eyes.
BAM
I sat bolt up in bed. One thirty-two AM. Something just crashed into the floor and shook my bed. I was startled and my heart pounded. I took a deep breath and adjusted to the darkness of my bedroom. It was quiet. I looked at the big London-bus picture on my wall: it was still hanging. I thought that something might have fallen in my living room, so I got up to go investigate. Art still on the wall, bookshelf intact, everything seemed to be in its place. I was tired and cranky; I went back to bed.
BAM
One forty-four. And then, tick. Quiet. Tick. Quiet. Tickticktick. Tick. Tickticktickticktick.
Quiet.
I sighed.
BAM
One fifty-five. Tickticktick. If this keeps up, I said to myself -because talking to myself is a thing now, I'm going to be up all night. Ticktick. Tick. I smile wryly. Surely not. Tickticktickticktickticktick. Tick. Quiet. I clenched my teeth, already anxious. I can't predict it and it
BAM
Two twelve. And it always shakes the bed. I got out of bed and turned on the lights. I stood in the corner of my room, from where I thought the sound was originating, and waited. The irregular ticking taunted me. I started counting. No pattern. I bit my tongue as time dragged on. The longer I waited the more likely I would hear the
BAM
Two twenty-five. The floor shook under my feet. I saw the heat register vibrate. I knelt down. I put my hand against it. Not warm nor cold, room temperature. I waited again. I counted the ticks. No pattern. Definitely coming from the radiator. Ticktick. Tickticktick. The pauses were the worst. I expected the noise any moment, the ground to shake, I prepared for it and
Tick. I started jumping at any noise that followed the quiet. Cars driving on the road or my fridge kicking on.
BAM
Two thirty-three. The register jolted against my hand. Certain I found the source of the problem, I grabbed my pillow and went to the living room. I supposed I would just sleep on the sofa. Even here I could hear the ticktick but at least the banging would be muffled, and the ticking was quiet -I could easily sleep through that, it was the anxiety of waiting for the pounding, jolting of my bed that was keeping me too stressed to close my eyes. The sofa is comfortable and I could call the building manager in the morning.
BAM
Two-something. No clock in the living room. The sofa shook. I got up again. I moved my pillow back into the bedroom, because if I was going to be kept up, I was at least to be comfortable on my queen-sized mattress with the memory foam pad on top and my 400 fill-power down blanket. I went back into the living room to wait anew. Tick. I bit my tongue. Ticktickticktick. Unconsciously I clenched my teeth harder and harder on my tongue. It's coming, my brain said. I knew, rationally, of course, that being stressed wasn't going to do any good but I was tired and confused and it was depriving me of sleep.
BAM
Two something-later. The whole living room shook. The whole register along the walls seemed to bang when it happens. I went back to my bedroom, ignoring the ticks.
BAM
Two fifty-two. I groaned, uncurled myself and grabbed my laptop. I started googling causes of banging in the pipes of floor radiators. Two common causes came up: air in the pipes, a minor problem wherein you bleed the system of air through a built-in valve for that express purpose and it stops, although left unchecked for a long time will cause the pipes to explode; or mineral buildup, a problem that requires replacing the affected pipes, or they explode. The former was far more common, so I hoped that was my concern, and around three-thirty, several BAMs later, I sent an email to my building's manager.
My night after that was spent failing to ignore the ticks and tensing every time the bed shook. I was going out of my mind. Any time I even began to drift off, it was a ten or fifteen minute-ish interval before
BAM
And I snapped awake, my body awash with adrenaline. It turns out your natural response to being shaken while asleep is to panic.
By about five, at least that's the last time I remember seeing the clock, pure exhaustion seems to have won I didn't rise until my alarm went off, and I hit snooze several times with success. When I finally dragged myself to the shower, I thought, relieved, maybe it had st
BAM
Oh.
After reading late into the evening and then enjoying some quiet sitting in the candlelight, I finally went to bed around 11, planning to get up at 6, or maybe 630 and go to work a little early. I curled up on my comfy queen-sized mattress with the memory foam pad on top, pulled my 400 fill-power down blanket over me and closed my eyes.
BAM
I sat bolt up in bed. One thirty-two AM. Something just crashed into the floor and shook my bed. I was startled and my heart pounded. I took a deep breath and adjusted to the darkness of my bedroom. It was quiet. I looked at the big London-bus picture on my wall: it was still hanging. I thought that something might have fallen in my living room, so I got up to go investigate. Art still on the wall, bookshelf intact, everything seemed to be in its place. I was tired and cranky; I went back to bed.
BAM
One forty-four. And then, tick. Quiet. Tick. Quiet. Tickticktick. Tick. Tickticktickticktick.
Quiet.
I sighed.
BAM
One fifty-five. Tickticktick. If this keeps up, I said to myself -because talking to myself is a thing now, I'm going to be up all night. Ticktick. Tick. I smile wryly. Surely not. Tickticktickticktickticktick. Tick. Quiet. I clenched my teeth, already anxious. I can't predict it and it
BAM
Two twelve. And it always shakes the bed. I got out of bed and turned on the lights. I stood in the corner of my room, from where I thought the sound was originating, and waited. The irregular ticking taunted me. I started counting. No pattern. I bit my tongue as time dragged on. The longer I waited the more likely I would hear the
BAM
Two twenty-five. The floor shook under my feet. I saw the heat register vibrate. I knelt down. I put my hand against it. Not warm nor cold, room temperature. I waited again. I counted the ticks. No pattern. Definitely coming from the radiator. Ticktick. Tickticktick. The pauses were the worst. I expected the noise any moment, the ground to shake, I prepared for it and
Tick. I started jumping at any noise that followed the quiet. Cars driving on the road or my fridge kicking on.
BAM
Two thirty-three. The register jolted against my hand. Certain I found the source of the problem, I grabbed my pillow and went to the living room. I supposed I would just sleep on the sofa. Even here I could hear the ticktick but at least the banging would be muffled, and the ticking was quiet -I could easily sleep through that, it was the anxiety of waiting for the pounding, jolting of my bed that was keeping me too stressed to close my eyes. The sofa is comfortable and I could call the building manager in the morning.
BAM
Two-something. No clock in the living room. The sofa shook. I got up again. I moved my pillow back into the bedroom, because if I was going to be kept up, I was at least to be comfortable on my queen-sized mattress with the memory foam pad on top and my 400 fill-power down blanket. I went back into the living room to wait anew. Tick. I bit my tongue. Ticktickticktick. Unconsciously I clenched my teeth harder and harder on my tongue. It's coming, my brain said. I knew, rationally, of course, that being stressed wasn't going to do any good but I was tired and confused and it was depriving me of sleep.
BAM
Two something-later. The whole living room shook. The whole register along the walls seemed to bang when it happens. I went back to my bedroom, ignoring the ticks.
BAM
Two fifty-two. I groaned, uncurled myself and grabbed my laptop. I started googling causes of banging in the pipes of floor radiators. Two common causes came up: air in the pipes, a minor problem wherein you bleed the system of air through a built-in valve for that express purpose and it stops, although left unchecked for a long time will cause the pipes to explode; or mineral buildup, a problem that requires replacing the affected pipes, or they explode. The former was far more common, so I hoped that was my concern, and around three-thirty, several BAMs later, I sent an email to my building's manager.
My night after that was spent failing to ignore the ticks and tensing every time the bed shook. I was going out of my mind. Any time I even began to drift off, it was a ten or fifteen minute-ish interval before
BAM
And I snapped awake, my body awash with adrenaline. It turns out your natural response to being shaken while asleep is to panic.
By about five, at least that's the last time I remember seeing the clock, pure exhaustion seems to have won I didn't rise until my alarm went off, and I hit snooze several times with success. When I finally dragged myself to the shower, I thought, relieved, maybe it had st
BAM
Oh.
