Status Update

[alexandraerin]

So after kind of suffering through fatigue the past few days, staying awake all day under the theory that it would help me sleep better at night, I went ahead and let myself crash this afternoon. That sort of had mixed results, as again there were some cat-related disturbances. The upshot is that I feel better than I did yesterday at this time. Not wide awake. Not awesome. But better.

I'm in the frustrating state of mind where stories are coming in, poking their head through the fog, but not sitting still long enough for me to cast a net over them in my current state. On Tales of MU, I have these folk stories from around the province of Blackwater, which is where Mackenzie and Hissy are from, and so there's going to be some relevance to the more immediate story, but I get a major case of the Blank Page Syndrome when I try to capture them. I've got the same thing going on with Gift of the Bad Guy. I don't know. I feel like I should open a file and write the ideas down so they don't vanish into the ether. Maybe that'll turn into writing? I don't know.

Comments

[brenda-ea.livejournal.com]

Regarding afternoon sleeping: I forget who told me this, but a nap of either twenty minutes or forty minutes will give a good quick rest. Going longer than that is what puts you over into that groggy state where you're more tired when you wake up than when you started. I've found it works for me - if I'm working on something and lie down with a timer for 20 minutes, that is often enough to refresh me.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

That advice is generally true, but to someone who has never possessed the secret magic trick called "going to sleep" it's kind of impractical.

I've experienced the joy of the power nap by accident some times (generally on a train, where something's very likely to wake me up before much time has passed no matter when I fall asleep), but unless I'm really truly exhausted to the point where a nap isn't going to be enough, if I set a timer for 20 minutes or 40 minutes and then lie down, the result won't be anything like 20 minutes of refreshing sleep... it'll be me lying there until the timer goes off, possibly right as I'm actually drifting off.

Sometimes I'll go have a lie-down during the day to rest my body when I'm feeling worn down, and I'll call it a nap because that's a nice concise way of summing it up, but generally if I'm actually going to sleep it's because I'm tired enough to fall asleep, and then 20 minutes wouldn't hold me for long.

[brenda-ea.livejournal.com]

I figured your situation might be different, but I thought I'd mention it just in case. Sorry.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not a problem.

[doctoreon.livejournal.com]

I hate when I get so desperate for sleep I start coming up with schemes like, "If I just keep my eyes open all day, I'll be able to sleep all night! Then, I will take over the world!" It never works, but I always convince myself it will. Hope you continue to feel better.