Andy Rose wrote to ask…
I'm curious as to how you are able to sleep effectively at times when most of the rest of the world isn't. I used to work overnight shifts, and I was never able to sleep entirely comfortably on those days. Even with blackout curtains and the phone turned off, I couldn't stop the birds from chirping, sirens from going by, neighbors from mowing their lawns, or the occasional knock at the door.
I tried an additional sleep mask and ear plugs, but I found that they caused as many problems as they solved. The mask would often get shifted or tight as I turned in my sleep, and ear plugs would often fall out for the same reason. Is there a trick here I was missing, or are you just naturally better adapted to sleeping at random times?
I wasn't but I am these days. I never slept that well during the day but due to COVID, I've now had over 800 days of a different lifestyle. I don't have very many places I have to go and that seems to make a difference. Today, I do have somewhere to go but the next few days, probably not. It does seem to make a difference that when I go to sleep, I'm not usually thinking, "I need to be up by X:00!"
Birds chirping or sirens passing never bothered me. I think my brain has become programmed to consider them part of the norm. My gardener's leaf blower sometimes bothers me but he comes late in the afternoon, a time I rarely sleep, and only once a week. One difference from you (probably) is that I sleep with a C-PAP unit due to my sleep apnea. It gives off a comforting "white noise" to which I've become addicted.
And it also really helps that most of the projects I'm currently writing are the kind of things that don't have to be done tomorrow by 2 PM. Nothing ever kept me awake as lying there, thinking I should get back to the computer and finish what I'd been working on.
When I'm lying awake, genuinely unable to sleep, I often get up, trudge down the hall back to the computer, and write a little more. A half hour, later I give sleep another try. The key thing, at least for me, is to not stress over not sleeping.
