Spring Break-Ish

[alexandraerin]

Folks, there has been and is going to continue to be updates for everything this week, but I've just realized it's Thursday (I mean that literally... I just checked the computer's clock to see if it was Tuesday or Wednesday) and I'm not going to hit the planned number of updates for the week. I should have been able to see this in advance and said so: my roommate's off work this week, my insomnia was in full force coming out of the weekend and I haven't been able to catch up on sleep by crashing during the day like I did last week because they've been working on the parking lot right outside and we've had painters in to clean up the results of the bathroom renovation and people in the hall... basically, it's spring cleaning time for the apartment complex.

Basically, I am so bone-tired mentally and physically but I can't sleep, for internal and external reasons. I should have declared this a vacation week and just tried to relax through it as best as I could. Gah. I said at some point (last summer, I think) that I'd do that once a quarter. I don't think I've ever managed to hold myself to it except semi-retroactively.

The writing I have done I think has turned out surprisingly pretty good, so I'm not going to take today and tomorrow off. My goal for the week is just to get as much as writing done as I can, make sure every story is represented since they've all got sponsors and people rooting for them, and then get my sleep sorted out on the weekend.

Melatonin has been suggested to me... as I recall, when I tried it before I didn't enjoy the side effects the next day, but I think if I take it Friday and Saturday night to ensure a night's sleep, that might work since what it's supposed to do is reset the circadian cycle. With that done, there's no reason why next week can't be like last week but without the updates drifting into Saturday.

Comments

[vox-vocis-causa.livejournal.com]

I don't know about your particular situation but what has helped me to sleep better has been to set a schedule and stick to it.
I get up at about the same time everyday, 7 - 8 am, I eat regular meals at regular times, especially dinner, eating right before bed will make it harder to get a decent nights sleep; it can also make you gain weight in case you need extra incentive :), also no caffeine in the evenings. Then get to bed at a decent time even if you aren't particularly tired, its easy to start going to bed later and later and before you know it you aren't going to bed at all.
Besides that try exercising in the afternoon, you don't burn off much energy sitting in front of a computer all day, its amazing how much it will wear you out just to go out for a few hours, or take a walk around the block.
Its also important to deal take some time to relax during the day, don't save your worrying for right before bed, make bedtime a time to just relax, when you get into bed let everything go until tomorrow, this takes some practice but no matter how bad a day I have I try to get into bed and just breath for a while and then I drift off.

Making and KEEPING a schedule should help you with your insomnia and should help you to be less stressed in general.