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Insomnia
- Thread starter kuatolives
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No. Recently, I slept all of maybe, eight hours during the course of a week because I was anxious over a story I was writing.
I figure I'll be lucky to get to bed by four (EDT) tonight. Uh ... tomorrow. But it's work time, not unable-to-sleep time; I just have a deadline. (Yes, I am too working!)
I tend not to be kept awake by a WIP unless it's deliberate. I had to learn how to handle it years ago. Otherwise I'd probably be enjoying the comfort of a padded room by now.
I tend not to be kept awake by a WIP unless it's deliberate. I had to learn how to handle it years ago. Otherwise I'd probably be enjoying the comfort of a padded room by now.
Haha. You are not alone. My roommate and I are both writing books and we've stayed up until 4am occasionally because we can't stop writing/talking about our books.
It's an addiction, and I never want it to end.
It's an addiction, and I never want it to end.
I'm so relieved, I thought it was just me. 51 hours and counting. What am I doing here? should be sleeping.
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Good heavens, no.
I judge a story by how much sleep I lose over it. If the characters keep me up all or most of the night, I'm onto something. If I can just put it to bed (and put myself to bed) at night and not think about it until morning? Yeah, probably not so excited about it.
Of course, I'm an insomniac anyway, so this doesn't bode well for my sanity, but what can you do?
Thank God for Valerian root...
I don't have a problem getting to sleep, even when I'm working flat out, but, if I'm writing seriously, perhaps against the clock, I'm up at four.
It's a different story when I'm editing, especially on the awkward second run, when big changes are made - then I can quite happily sleep in, and do, often.
It's a different story when I'm editing, especially on the awkward second run, when big changes are made - then I can quite happily sleep in, and do, often.
It's been a long time since I lost sleep because of a WIP. However, I do usually fall asleep thinking about whatever I'm working on. The 10-20 minutes between getting in bed and falling asleep are a great time to think through what needs to be written next, how to fix plotholes, etc.
I am with Jamie. Melatonin is my best friend. Jamie, I recently saw your novel on the new fiction table at Border's. I would have picked it up, but I had my twins with me and they scream whenever I stop the stroller. I'll get it this weekend though. It sounds interesting and I can't wait to read it.
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I don't know how many times I'm lying in bed thinking about my WIP and I'll suddenly shoot up and run to my roommates room with a brand, spankin' new idea or plot twist.
Poor thing. The lack of sleep she gets because of my sudden jolts of hyperness.
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Chronic x2.
It sometimes makes life quite a bit like King's The Long Walk. Sometimes in a good way.
No. Before I started writing Andra I slept around 10 or 11 pm to around 7 am on the weekdays and 8 am on the weekends. Now my sleeping schedule is around 11 pm to 7 am on weeknights and midnight or 1 am to 10 or 11 am on the weekends. It's especially bad when I get a new idea and have to get up to write it down.
I always suffer from insomnia when I'm really into a project. And then when I finally do sleep I have the strangest dreams. The book I wrote during the winter had a lot of dream sequences which didn't help any.
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When I'm drafting, I always sleep badly. I get ideas in the middle of the night and have to write them down or I forget them. Someone explained it to me as having to do with alpha waves, the brain activity that's most common when we're on the edge of sleep. Apparently, we're most creative then.
No, I don't lose sleep over the writing. It's the querying that does that!
Actually, I find thinking about my work before bed to be very relaxing and occasionally helpful. Alpha waves for the win, lol.
Now, once I've sent out one query, I need to take a Benadryl (and/or a hard cider) before bed or I won't get a wink of sleep. My palms sweat for days and I'm terribly irritable. Glad I took a break from querying, actually.
Hope everyone sleeps tight tonight!
Actually, I find thinking about my work before bed to be very relaxing and occasionally helpful. Alpha waves for the win, lol.
Now, once I've sent out one query, I need to take a Benadryl (and/or a hard cider) before bed or I won't get a wink of sleep. My palms sweat for days and I'm terribly irritable. Glad I took a break from querying, actually.
Hope everyone sleeps tight tonight!
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