Unplugged

I'm a writer, I'm a tutor, I'm a gamer.

My world revolves around being on the computer.

I spend countless hours every day working on word documents, addressing questions from students, and playing games with my friends. After getting ready in the morning, I set up my room to turn into the ultimate technical playground. I don my blue light glasses and set up for the next few hours of tutoring, oftentimes coupled with writing a novel. This happens day in and day out. Even on holidays and weekends, this cycle continues.

At night this constant schedule often rears its ugly head.

As soon as everything is powered down, and the lights are turned off, I find myself reeling. It's as if everything from the past comes rushing back. Anxious thoughts cloud my head, it's crammed in between anxiety and worry about how I interacted with other people. I want quiet, and I want peace, but the moment I turn over I find myself face to face with the screen I had been sitting in front of all day. I start to spiral and find myself feeling pulled to get back up. I'm not sick, I'm not sleeping, and I'm not busy, so I should be tutoring. I should be working on writing that novel to ensure it doesn't sit unfinished. There are a million things I should be doing.

The one thing that I've ignored? Sleep.

Sleep is something I never considered important. To me, it was always a poor and ineffective use of time. It took up so much of the day that I felt I was scrambling to complete tasks. What I failed to realize is that the lack of sleep was the reason that by 9 pm each night I was already exhausted and ready to sleep. It never occurred to me that maybe developing better sleep hygiene could drastically improve my productivity.

Thus, here are my 2022 resolutions for sleep.

1. Keep electronics out of bed.

Although I would prefer to keep them out of my room entirely, much of my work has to be done here. My bedroom works as both a place of rest and work, but I've modified it to better support my sleep. Instead of using my laptop on my bed (as I had done for hours a day previously), I've cleared off a spot on my desk and invested in a nice chair. I should be just as comfy while at the same time teaching my body that the bed is for rest and relaxation, not work.

2. Keep a "Do It Later" journal.

One thing I struggle with is feeling like I have to do things right here and right now. I have ordered a mini planner/journal. Personally, when I worry about something, I can often soothe that discomfort if I plan out a place, time, or way to do it later. I tried this for a few nights the past couple of weeks with post-it notes and found that writing down what I needed or wanted to do help my mind stop focusing on it.

3. If I'm not sleeping, get up.

Sometimes I find myself laying in bed and staring up at the ceiling. This can continue for hours. Eventually, I found that the time would drag on longer if I didn't get up. Now, I get up and do monotonous things that I dislike doing such as cleaning, folding laundry, or organizing. Once I feel tired, I'm going to then try going back to bed. I hope this will help teach my brain and body to chill out.

These are three little resolutions I hope I can stick to. If I'm lucky, it might even... gasp... help! If only it were as easy to stick to as they are to write down.