I can hear your groan a mile away. This is not new advice, right? Yeah, every writer blog you've ever seen tells you that. It's good advice, but you've already heard it.
Well, I'm not going to tell you to. Because you already know. What I will tell you is how this advice has started to transform my life!
Seriously, I've been suffering from insomnia for the last year or so. A lot of it is because of my lingering post partum depression (PPD, to the uninitiated.) Some of it eating habits (Why yes, I'd love a coke at 10:00 PM!). But the primary cause is staying up too late on the computer. There was a study done recently linking computer screen time to insomnia. My husband told me about it, and it makes sense; the light emanating from the computer screen interrupts your natural biorhythms. So I figured... why not. Let's cut out the electronic lap-teat and see what happens.
I don't have any good books around right now, so I pulled out my blank journal, the one I've been half-ass carrying around with me all the time with intentions of writing.
I wrote 20 pages in two days.
That was four weeks ago. I've only missed three nights, and that was due to unavoidable medical issues. I've gone from 24 pages to 92 (as of last night.) I'm sleeping better, my back hurts less,and I'm a lot less grumpy. More importantly, the only time I've seen 3 AM has been when the insomnia left me tossing and turning in bed AFTER I wrote.
It feels good. I've actually loved sitting in bed, with my husband, him reading a book, me listening to my MP3 player and scribbling like I did when I was a poor teenager with no computer.
Best of all? No email to distract me from my latest WIP.
Now that, my friends, is good news indeed.
Well, I'm not going to tell you to. Because you already know. What I will tell you is how this advice has started to transform my life!
Seriously, I've been suffering from insomnia for the last year or so. A lot of it is because of my lingering post partum depression (PPD, to the uninitiated.) Some of it eating habits (Why yes, I'd love a coke at 10:00 PM!). But the primary cause is staying up too late on the computer. There was a study done recently linking computer screen time to insomnia. My husband told me about it, and it makes sense; the light emanating from the computer screen interrupts your natural biorhythms. So I figured... why not. Let's cut out the electronic lap-teat and see what happens.
I don't have any good books around right now, so I pulled out my blank journal, the one I've been half-ass carrying around with me all the time with intentions of writing.
I wrote 20 pages in two days.
That was four weeks ago. I've only missed three nights, and that was due to unavoidable medical issues. I've gone from 24 pages to 92 (as of last night.) I'm sleeping better, my back hurts less,and I'm a lot less grumpy. More importantly, the only time I've seen 3 AM has been when the insomnia left me tossing and turning in bed AFTER I wrote.
It feels good. I've actually loved sitting in bed, with my husband, him reading a book, me listening to my MP3 player and scribbling like I did when I was a poor teenager with no computer.
Best of all? No email to distract me from my latest WIP.
Now that, my friends, is good news indeed.
1 comment:
I have the exact same problem. I'm up until 3 or 4am (or worse) every single day. Last night I was up reading every post on your blog from the beginning up until this post. The internet is incredibly addictive. I'm going to try this technique as I too haven't written in way too long. Thanks for the tip.
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