Written by Daz Burns

My ponderings from a night that had great sleep intentions…that went out the window!

 

Good intentions

You know how life is busy and we all have good intentions about getting appropriate amounts of sleep and taking better care of ourselves while doing everything we need to do each day? 

Well, for the first time in over a week I stuck to my bedtime reminder and was in bed on time.

(I have an alarm that goes off at 8.30 pm telling me I have half an hour to wind down to be in bed by 9.00 pm so I can wake up at 5 am to smash another day).

And I stuck to the plan of getting to bed early because I have been exhausted lately, and a tired Dairne isn’t always the best mum, colleague, wife, friend, human… nor is she productive or on the ball.

 

Currently

So I am now literally writing this, 35 minutes since snuggling up into my nice, warm, comfy bed.

Listening to my husband’s deep breathing.

Listening to my little dog snoring.

Listening to one of my sons wriggling on the monitor.

All the while WIDE AWAKE!

ARGH!!

Does anyone actually count sheep? 

Is it an effective strategy? (Seriously, not rhetorical, let me know!)

 

Ellen asked Tom Hanks once, “what do you do when you can’t sleep?” 

She was anticipating the answer to be ‘get up’, ‘make hot milk’, etc.

She was totally thrown and giggled when he answered by saying “I roll over.”

Tom, (I’m sure you are reading my blog) just letting you know, I tried it… I rolled over… I’m still awake, any other tips?

 

It is so frustrating when you ask you brain for some silence and instead ‘DJ wide awake’ takes over and plays all kinds of things you don’t want to hear:

• The chorus of ‘you won’t break my soul’ on repeat for 30 minutes.
• Playback of a conversation from the day that you wish you handled differently.
• Internal battering for not speaking kinder to your children.
• An idea that needs to be thought deeply about.
• A game of guess what that scary noise was.

 

Seriously, ARGH! 

Why am I wide awake?!

I did all the right things! 

I ‘wound’ down.

I stopped working, I didn’t look at my phone, I switched off!

I did mindful breathing.

I kept to the routine (though it is the first time in some time that I am doing the routine).

Yet, here I am, wide awake.

My brain is full. 

Spilling over. 

And stress beginning to creep in.

Which is only making matters worse.

Did I say ARGH?!

 

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this random rant in the dark from me. 

There has to be some good that comes from this yarn right?!

I could lean into some literature I have read and videos I have watched about the importance of sleep from the likes of Matthew Walker or Arianna Huffington.

But that is just going to make me even more awake. 

 

So, I think the best that could come from it is to start a kōrero that helps others who face this same problem day in and day out.

 

So, what do you do when you can’t sleep? 

Let me know and we can share this with our community to help others.

 

Sweet dreams team, Daz out…. Hopefully ?