For years, I’ve been fighting sleep. I’m not a morning person, and although I can be exhausted by 6 p.m., once 9 p.m. comes around, I’m wide awake and eager to work.
Phoenix is an early town, and I’m not serving myself by going to bed at 2 a.m. I might get work done at night, but I usually exercise in the morning, and by the time I do my two mile walk, eat breakfast, and get ready, the prime morning hours have a serious chunk out of them.
I’ve tried going to be early, but I simply don’t want to. I want to finish something, start something, read, but not sleep. Even though I’m sleepy enough to drop off in about 15 minutes once I go to bed.
Warm milk, chocolate, no TV–all for nothing. But I’ve finally hit the right note.
At 10 p.m., I finish my work, whatever it is, no matter how wonderful. I’ve had to set an alarm to do this, but luckily, my iPhone helps with that. At 10 p.m. I pick up my latest hobby–knitting–and put on an audio book. It’s not a educational book, just easy fiction. I call it “the potato chip of the mind.” It’s distracting and interesting enough so I want to listen. For half an hour I knit and listen, literally, to my bedtime story. At 10:30, at a pause in the CD, I get up, mark down where I stopped listening, brush my teeth, wash my face and go to bed.
The wind down is important, and without it, I’m restless and don’t want to sleep. Like a kid fighting sleep, I’m not ready for bed, but with the ritual, it’s much easier.
Cartoon: www.ireallydontwantajob.com
–Quinn McDonald is a night owl in a lark’s world. She is working hard on adjusting. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved
