I can’t remember a time in my life where I haven’t cycled through times when I can’t sleep. There are times I can sleep 8-10 hours a night or longer and still want more. More often I’m working on 6 hours of sleep and happy I got that much. Lately though I’ve been struggling with sleeping. I go to bed and lay there for over an hour just trying to get to sleep. Then when I do get to sleep, I only stay asleep for 20 minutes or so at a time.
As I said I’ve been doing this a long time and I’m sort of used to it. I’m noticing though that when I swing down into one of my sleep deprived periods that odd things happen to me. I feel every possible ache in my body. My arthritis usually only affects my knees and ankles but when I’m sleep deprived I feel it in my arms, hips, back… yeah pretty much everywhere. I also have many more headaches. These are the negative side effects of my crazy brains sleep disturbances.
The positive side is I am so much more creative. I find myself dreaming about my writing projects. I write more poetry. I am more productive in my writing. I may be crankier (and yes you can tell) with people but when I sit down to work things just flow for me. I can’t seem to get the words out of me fast enough.
So while I’d like more sleep… I’d like more sleep and to continue to be as productive in my writing. Now if I can just get my brain and body on board for that… oh and I’m sure those living and dealing with me would like me to be less cranky…