Sleep is for the Smart
Posted 13th November 2009 by el-e-e, tagged writing, sleep, mental energy
Our 21-month-old has had a cold since last Friday, and being so stopped up she has had a hard time sleeping. When she was in the thick of it with fevers, I willingly woke up with her and sat in the rocking chair for hours during the night. Snoozing, maybe dozing, but not good sleep. This was during the weekend, so at least I didn't have work the next morning.
However, she's developed quite the little habit now, and thinks waking up in the middle of the night to rock with me is What We Do.
I disagree, as you might imagine, and not thrilled about having to re-sleep-train her.
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All week I have had a hard time with my work. I've had several writing assignments and been unable to focus on them, to create a good angle. I can pound something out, but the results haven't been up to my standards. I haven't felt satisfied. Yesterday I was working on a newsletter and simply could not come up with anything to include. I was idea-less. It made me wander around on the Internet. I felt aimless, hopeless even.
Finally this morning at 4:44 a.m., I realized why. I can function on little sleep. We all do it, right? We get up anyway, even though a couple more hours would be soooo nice. We shower, we get the kids packed up and get to our offices and work... lather, rinse, repeat. But I have learned this week that I can't function well in this scenario. It's not like I'm wandering around the office like a zombie or yawning all the livelong day. I drink my coffee! I can sit at my desk and string words together. They just aren't necessarily high-quality words. I don't have the mental energy for exceptional work.
This is why sleep is so important. Not sure why that feels like such a revelation to me, but it's a bit of a relief. I'm not losing my brain, or getting worse at my job. I'm just tired.
1 comment so far...
Flag as inappropriate Posted by Mari on 13th November 2009