Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Things that keep me up at night

I don't sleep much. Between working nights and getting up early to write, I'm lucky if I get 5 hours a night. And yet, so many nights I'm lying awake at 3am, seemingly insurmountable problems spinning through my head. Did I remember to send that report to head office? Did I just do a bad thing by signing that contract? Am I going to get enough time to finish chapter 9 tomorrow? I forgot to wash my son's bathing suit after the beach on Sunday and he has swimming lessons tomorrow.

These are the things that race through my head, making it impossible to sleep. Yet come morning, these problems never seem so huge and overwhelming. But I end up spending the day as a zombie because I lay awake for hours worrying.

Do you have this problem? What do you do to turn off the hyperactivity in your head?

6 comments:

  1. I must admit...I don't have any problems sleeping. I'm a great sleeper, can pretty much sleep anywhere. Then again, my sister says I don't worry about anything so that's probably why.

    Now, my sister on the other hand has this issue. She keeps a notebook on the side of her desk and writes everything that flows through her head so that she only has to think about it once. Then she can turn her brain off and fall asleep...maybe that would help?

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  2. That could work, although writing things down in the dark might prove challenging...

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  3. Audiobooks. Seriously, you spend your time listening to what is going on in the story. If that doesn't work, try non-fiction audiobooks. Theories on the economy. Or presidents.

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  4. Hmmm... That might work. Certainly my partner's sports radio always puts me to sleep in the first place.

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  5. I have this problem too, I get so tired but as soon as the lights go out - ping. If I have something in my head I must not forget, or need to get it out of there because it's distracting, I will type it in my phone. I've tried writing on a notebook in the dark but find it makes no sense the next day.

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  6. I have no problem falling asleep, but getting up is hard! I have the opposite problem. But I know what you mean. Whenever I have too many thoughts spinning around in my head, I write everything down on a blank sheet of paper. It always helps. Then I can look at each thing objectively and determine what the next step should be. Even just the fact that it's down on paper helps me let it go. I can worry about it later. I won't forget.

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