I Got Sleep!

Crashed out about 9:30 last night. This is kind of a big deal, because, well...

I have this spiral I get into. It starts like this: I'll have something that I need (or badly want) to get done - like sorting laundry, say, or some sort of writing project. So, I'll stay up late to do it. Usually that isn't hugely late (we're talking midnight-thirty to one-thirty in the morning, generally) but at my age it doesn't have to be. So the next day I'll be a bit tired, especially by the time bedtime rolls around.

So, I'll make an extra push to get the evening's stuff done, which pushes me past my window for going to sleep. Then I end up staying up a bit later than I intended to, and... well, you see where this is going, right? The longer the pattern goes on, the harder it is to break out of it. And the longer it goes on, the more tired I get overall, and the less productive I am.

This is what psychologists refer to as a "self-defeating behavior", and the rest of us refer to as, "What were you thinking, moron?"

So, I'm making a concerted effort not to get started down that road. If I spent the day feeling tired, then I need to go to bed. If I'm too tired to write in the evening, then I need to go to bed. If one or both boys drag out their bed-times so long that I have no time of my own, well... too bad, I need to go bed.

And, to be honest, I like sleeping. I miss sleeping. When I'm getting enough sleep, I have bizarre and intriguing dreams. When I'm getting enough sleep, I'm faster; I'm smarter; I'm funnier. My ability to be whimsical and creative comes back. And there are secondary effects: I eat better when I'm rested, for example, because I'm not stuffing myself with salt and sugar in a desperate attempt to keep myself going.

So that's the plan: sleep.