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5 things
1. I'm seeing a sleep therapist now, because I would like to get off the potentially addictive hypnotic that is currently holding my insomnia down. She told me what I really already knew, that I need to get on a fixed schedule of going to bed at the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning. Which means getting up at 6:30 on weekends. I HATE THIS. I have always been a night owl, and mornings are my favorite time to sleep. But I am determined to give this fixed schedule a fair shot, so here I am, awake and fed and medicated and dressed at 8:30 on a Sunday morning. (Nobody says I have to move fast on weekends, just that I have to get up.)
The fixed schedule idea also means that I have to go to bed--as in, in bed, lights out, eyes shut, at 10:15. And ideally I need to try to decrease my computer usage in the late evenings, because of light issues (photosensitivity plus glow of monitor equals confused circadian rhythms). Which means I have even less time to get computer things done, and I am still trying to finish this goddamn book. Ergo, as little as I have been an online presence in recent months, I'm going to be even less of one, at least for a while. Which is Teh Suck, but I have to find a way to keep the insomnia chained in the basement, and long-term drug usage is just not the way I want to go.
2. So, when I was making my whirlwind trip to Boston, I discovered that O'Hare has a Field Museum store. This is a brilliantly terrible idea on the Field Museum's part, but it did mean I could take![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala meerkat socks as a hostess gift (because seriously--meerkat socks). And I bought for myself a pair of tiny Sue earrings. They have become my favorite earrings--for the one set of holes I don't just leave rings in all the time--for days I don't have to dress like an adult.
3. Two really nice capsule reviews of The Bone Key: (1) and (2). And Somewhere Beneath Those Waves got a starred review from Library Journal (here if you're interested) and a very kind mention from Lesley Hall over at Aqueduct Press's blog.
4. These fossa pups, Ingrid, Heidi, and Gretchen, show that Madagascar really knows how to work the charismatic predator* angle.
5. Have a picture of Milo and me:
(Stepping Stones Studio 2011)
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*ursulav came up with that useful designation.
The fixed schedule idea also means that I have to go to bed--as in, in bed, lights out, eyes shut, at 10:15. And ideally I need to try to decrease my computer usage in the late evenings, because of light issues (photosensitivity plus glow of monitor equals confused circadian rhythms). Which means I have even less time to get computer things done, and I am still trying to finish this goddamn book. Ergo, as little as I have been an online presence in recent months, I'm going to be even less of one, at least for a while. Which is Teh Suck, but I have to find a way to keep the insomnia chained in the basement, and long-term drug usage is just not the way I want to go.
2. So, when I was making my whirlwind trip to Boston, I discovered that O'Hare has a Field Museum store. This is a brilliantly terrible idea on the Field Museum's part, but it did mean I could take
matociquala meerkat socks as a hostess gift (because seriously--meerkat socks). And I bought for myself a pair of tiny Sue earrings. They have become my favorite earrings--for the one set of holes I don't just leave rings in all the time--for days I don't have to dress like an adult.
3. Two really nice capsule reviews of The Bone Key: (1) and (2). And Somewhere Beneath Those Waves got a starred review from Library Journal (here if you're interested) and a very kind mention from Lesley Hall over at Aqueduct Press's blog.
4. These fossa pups, Ingrid, Heidi, and Gretchen, show that Madagascar really knows how to work the charismatic predator* angle.
5. Have a picture of Milo and me:
(Stepping Stones Studio 2011)
---
*
ursulav came up with that useful designation.
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That wasn't helpful, was it?
The Field Museum has a gift for really evil things. Wonderful evil things.
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Good luck with the scheduled sleeping! I too am very hostile to getting up on a schedule on the weekends...I fail more often than succeed, alas. I hope it makes a difference for you!
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http://fieldmuseum.org/happening/exhibits/genghis-khan
Sorry about the stupid adult sleep schedule. :(
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On the computer-before-bed: there's a nifty little free app, f.lux (at http://stereopsis.com/flux/) that will adjust the display colors based on time of day (cooler/brighter colors during the day, warmer/deeper at night.)
I find it helps quite a bit with my own computer-before-bed sleep issues.
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As a possible add'l aid re: computer light, do you know of http://stereopsis.com/flux/ ?
5. Great picture.
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Have you tried meditation before bed as a sleep aid? I know some people find that helpful, particularly if what keeps you awake is having trouble turning off your brain.
With respect to the computer and light issue, have you considered using a voice-to-text program like Dragon Naturally Speaking to dictate instead of writing at the keyboard while starting at the monitor? You'd need to go over what you "wrote" the night before while looking at the screen to make corrections, but once the tool learns your voice, I understand the accuracy rate is pretty good.
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---L.
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Milo! He even looks like a Milo, you know?
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love Maggie xxx
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Partly this involved playing catch-up, and partly it involved a good bedtime routine like you mention in your entry. The catch-up part is basically recording (for the first week) how many hours you spend abed compared to the hours you spend asleep, and (during subsequent weeks) trying to get that as close to 1:1 as possible by adjusting your bedtime based on the time you want to get up, and the desired sleep efficiency (100%).
I started out sleeping about four hours out of the nine I spent in bed, and wanted to get up at 6am, so to get the bed/sleep ratio to 1:1 I went to bed at 2am for a while. Once you start getting 100% sleep efficiency, you move your bedtime earlier by 30mins and keep going until you're sleeping as long as you want to. :) Obviously it takes a bit of finagling, but it worked reasonably well to reset my sleep cycle to a "normal" circadian rhythm.
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A dear friend of mine has had great success with the no-screen-time-before-bed thing. She says that it never stops being annoying, but is worth it. Fingers crossed that it works at least as well for you.
-Nameseeker
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