The 2AM Dilemma

[SimonDoom]

Fall back to sleep though, before you finish it?

Definitely. For that, I get back in bed and pick up a dense, slow book and start reading. Reading gets me back in the right state of mind for sleep.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Gonna drag this thread back to the top because I should've been asleep 4 hours ago and I have too many story ideas going through my head.

Write them all down! I think the worst thing that happens to me is 'Oh I'll remember it tomorrow, it's such a great idea..'--fuck that, I forget every time, I'm getting up to put any juicy thought I have in my notepad from now on.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

I am, that's the problem, lol. I think I just made six new Google docs...

Sleep deprivation is totally acceptable if it's on account of writing. It'll allll be worth it when you publish some phenomenal stories.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Aww, sweet, but you clearly haven't read my stories, lol

I've got you on my reading list, for sure. Quite looking forward to it.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Sleep deprivation is totally acceptable if it's on account of writing. It'll allll be worth it when you publish some phenomenal stories.

There can be no denying the call of the dark monster that try to desecrate your sleep...
All you can do is fend them off by writing down the thoughts that steal your snores...
What I find surprising is how easily i fall asleep after i have been writing for two hours at 2AM....
My alarm waking me at 6AM is very rude, and obnoxious....

Cagivagurl

 

[SeraphNocturne]

There can be no denying the call of the dark monster that try to desecrate your sleep...
All you can do is fend them off by writing down the thoughts that steal your snores...
What I find surprising is how easily i fall asleep after i have been writing for two hours at 2AM....
My alarm waking me at 6AM is very rude, and obnoxious....

Cagivagurl

I feel you there. Ironically though those long nights to write to wake up in less than six hours have me spring up so easily... I guess that's probably from sleep depravation instead of actually feeling rested though I don't notice I'm tired until later in the day.

The things we suffer for writing, am I right?

 

[Cagivagurl]

I feel you there. Ironically though those long nights to write to wake up in less than six hours have me spring up so easily... I guess that's probably from sleep depravation instead of actually feeling rested though I don't notice I'm tired until later in the day.

The things we suffer for writing, am I right?

So right...
The alarm wakes me, from the deepest sleep... I hate it, but then shower, dress... All the while complaining, but the day slowly improves, and ideas abut what I wrote seep back in to my consciousness, and I smile.... (Yeah, that's gonna work)....
There's something about being awake late at night....
The world around you sleeps, th world is hibernating, your mind is alive, awake... thoughts grow, ideas emerge...conversations form, and you can test them aloud without being arrested by men wearing white coats....
It is the creators time...
(unless you're a drummer) I have noticed neighbours do not appreciate new drum solos at 2 AM....
Cagivagurl

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Gonna drag this thread back to the top because I should've been asleep 4 hours ago and I have too many story ideas going through my head.

What is this sleep business you people keep talking about. I don't think I've had a good nights sleep in years. Probably from around the time I started writing on here. Coincidence? I think not.

 

[Wayne_Wilder82]

You're working on a new story.

It's coming along well, but you don't have it all worked out just yet. Still, you're happy with the progress so far.

You go to bed at a reasonable hour, but you can't sleep. Your mind is on the story; the plot, the characters, the path it needs to go.

Scenes start playing in your head. Dialog, conversations between main characters, important bits of information needed to be conveyed to move their relationship and the story along.

Finally, you roll over and grab your phone or computer or whatever you write on, and the notes begin.

Random, disjointed, out of order. No quotation marks or punctuation, Maybe not even complete sentences. No. Just the crux of it, the important bit you dread forgetting by the next morning. The rest you can flesh out later.

Finished, or so you think. You roll over and try to sleep, but more ideas come, expanding on what you just jotted down.

So you write those down, too.

The cycle repeats, several times, until finally it's all out in a jumble of badly typed notes.


Finally, your brain shuts off and you can go to sleep.

You wake up the next morning, tired, but happy to have done it and exited to get started taking that mess of random ideas and words and putting structure to it.

But first, of course, you gotta go to work.

Tell me it's not just me.

The struggle is real… lol

 

[Euphony]

I feel you there. Ironically though those long nights to write to wake up in less than six hours have me spring up so easily... I guess that's probably from sleep depravation instead of actually feeling rested though I don't notice I'm tired until later in the day.

The things we suffer for writing, am I right?

For real. Those faux sleep nights are brutal.

Wake up feeling eerily well rested, more than if you got a solid 8+ hours.

Ravenously hungry til "the crash."

Then the exhaustion/nausea.

Triple Word Score for those times when you try to sleep but roasted your circadians so hard, you're exhausted with zero chance of falling asleep.

But you did fix that narrative problem that's been plaguing you at bedtime for weeks.

Worth it.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

For real. Those faux sleep nights are brutal.

Wake up feeling eerily well rested, more than if you got a solid 8+ hours.

Ravenously hungry til "the crash."

Then the exhaustion/nausea.

Triple Word Score for those times when you try to sleep but roasted your circadians so hard, you're exhausted with zero chance of falling asleep.

But you did fix that narrative problem that's been plaguing you at bedtime for weeks.

Worth it.

You have no idea how worth it it is... and honestly, the 5-6 hour of sleep window is cool, because more than 7.5 and I wake up feeling god awful tired. So sacrificing a bit of sleep to pump out a few thousand words or rescue a few plot ideas from being lost in the abyss of next-day-memory-wipe works out... I have a cup of coffee and power through til around one. I get off at two-thirty and that's usually crash time for me. It works out.

Is it healthy?

Probably not.

Do I care?

...Not even a little bit, heh.

 

[Djmac1031]

You have no idea how worth it it is... and honestly, the 5-6 hour of sleep window is cool, because more than 7.5 and I wake up feeling god awful tired. So sacrificing a bit of sleep to pump out a few thousand words or rescue a few plot ideas from being lost in the abyss of next-day-memory-wipe works out... I have a cup of coffee and power through til around one. I get off at two-thirty and that's usually crash time for me. It works out.

Is it healthy?

Probably not.

Do I care?

...Not even a little bit, heh.

It's a little rougher when you get older, trust me.

Uninterrupted sleep becomes a high priority

 

[Euphony]

You have no idea how worth it it is... and honestly, the 5-6 hour of sleep window is cool, because more than 7.5 and I wake up feeling god awful tired. So sacrificing a bit of sleep to pump out a few thousand words or rescue a few plot ideas from being lost in the abyss of next-day-memory-wipe works out... I have a cup of coffee and power through til around one. I get off at two-thirty and that's usually crash time for me. It works out.

Is it healthy?

Probably not.

Do I care?

...Not even a little bit, heh.

Oh I'm with you. I do the same calculus on the regular.

But Christamighty do I destroy myself sometimes.

Would be so much easier even just 30 minutes earlier but the writing gods DEMAND their sacrifice.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Oh I'm with you. I do the same calculus on the regular.

But Christamighty do I destroy myself sometimes.

Would be so much easier even just 30 minutes earlier but the writing gods DEMAND their sacrifice.

The best stuff always seems to come when we're half dead and needing to be up early... the muses are fickle mistresses.

 

[Euphony]

The best stuff always seems to come when we're half dead and needing to be up early... the muses are fickle mistresses.

Absolutely .

I've tried everything short of serious yoga practice to inhabit that special headspace and nothing has been as consistent as the sleep sacrafice.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

It's a little rougher when you get older, trust me.

Uninterrupted sleep becomes a high priority

I've been in need of a sleep study since I was sixteen, nothing about my brain and rest makes sense. I will say though, not having three days straight of insomnia has been nice... I only get occasional bouts of half-sleep insomnia now, if I don't have caffeine...
You know... the kind where you lay down and you're asleep but your brain is still somehow awake and when you get up to your alarm, you feel like you didn't sleep at all?

No? Just me?

Absolutely .

I've tried everything short of serious yoga practice to inhabit that special headspace and nothing has been as consistent as the sleep sacrafice.

Agreed. There's no other way, it has to be some sort of energy transference to appease the Muses.

 

[Euphony]

the kind where you lay down and you're asleep but your brain is still somehow awake and when you get up to your alarm, you feel like you didn't sleep at all?

No? Just me?

That shit is so utterly terrifying, even remembering through reading your post has terror tremors forming.

 

[Euphony]

No? Just me?

The other destructive state it likes to induce is the "but I know I did that" feels.

You are deadset, under even impending death, that you did something yet when you come across whatever X thing or task it is CLEARLY undone.

You don't remember the doing as it's usually not noteworthy in any way but fuck are absolutely sure you did it and are balancing your sanity on that reality.

 

[Djmac1031]

The best stuff always seems to come when we're half dead and needing to be up early... the muses are fickle mistresses.

Yup.

I'm currently writing a prequel to The Devil And Angel Em.

I've been on a roll with it, but what eluded me was the right pieces to make it fully integrate with the original story, to connect completely without contradiction.

It's been those pieces coming into my head late at night that's kept me up, constantly reaching for my phone to make notes.

The good news is, all the pieces are now clear to me.

Just gotta finish putting them together.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

That shit is so utterly terrifying, even remembering through reading your post has terror tremors forming.

It is single handedly the most obnoxious feeling in the world, I can't think of anything that frustrates me as much as being asleep while my brain is still on and having full on patterns of thought and stressing that I should be resting, while I linger somewhere in between half conscious and REM. It's not paralysis, it's not sleep, or a state of wakefulness.

Some Somnologist will have a field day with me, some day...

Once again though, I appreciate you being able to relate to my questionable states of... minor insanity, I guess.

 

[Djmac1031]

I've been in need of a sleep study since I was sixteen, nothing about my brain and rest makes sense. I will say though, not having three days straight of insomnia has been nice... I only get occasional bouts of half-sleep insomnia now, if I don't have caffeine...
You know... the kind where you lay down and you're asleep but your brain is still somehow awake and when you get up to your alarm, you feel like you didn't sleep at all?

No? Just me?

I've tried meditation and it has helped somewhat on sleepless nights.

Also bought an eyemask with built in Bluetooth speakers and play ambient sounds / music to fall asleep to.

Helps clear the clutter from my brain and just focus on relaxing and sleeping.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Yup.

I'm currently writing a prequel to The Devil And Angel Em.

I've been on a roll with it, but what eluded me was the right pieces to make it fully integrate with the original story, to connect completely without contradiction.

It's been those pieces coming into my head late at night that's kept me up, constantly reaching for my phone to make notes.

The good news is, all the pieces are now clear to me.

Just gotta finish putting them together.

Yesssss, you got this Djmac! Ride that sleep deprivation wave to the glory lands of publishing awesomeness!

 

[Euphony]

Once again though, I appreciate you being able to relate to my questionable states of... minor insanity, I guess.

Me too. Terrifying when it won't let you go.

I've often wondered if my writing isn't at least tangentially related to having sleep troubles all my life.

Maybe my young mind subconsciously made the best of a bad situation, spinning misery into somewhat therapeutic gold.

 

[Euphony]

Yesssss, you got this Djmac! Ride that sleep deprivation wave to the glory lands of publishing awesomeness.

Another artist only celebrated after his art's killed him.

We needed more of those?

 

[SeraphNocturne]

The other destructive state it likes to induce is the "but I know I did that" feels.

You are deadset, under even impending death, that you did something yet when you come across whatever X thing or task it is CLEARLY undone.

You don't remember the doing as it's usually not noteworthy in any way but fuck are absolutely sure you did it and are balancing your sanity on that reality.

I've got a theory that this might be some kind of multiverse glitch... that weird deja vu feeling of doing something you know you did, only to find the task is incomplete or untouched? Think it might be accidentally syncing up with an alternate dimension you who is doing the exact same thing, and actually got it done. I wonder if they go back and double check, unsure if they did it or not?

I'm chock full of cockamamie schemes and thoughts, don't mind me.

Another artist only celebrated after his art's killed him.

We needed more of those?

There is no glory without sacrifice... there is no peace, only passion!