Writers are not the best sleepers

Writers are readers, but sometimes not good sleepers. Those story telling voices in my brain don't operate in my time zone. During busy times of the day such as while I am teaching or coaching, they are drowned out or ignored. Then when my head hits the pillow in a quiet room, those pesky storytellers feel like they own my attention.

Unless you are a writer, this sounds completely off the chart. Does this writer need to see a psychotherapist (never mind, she is one)? Or does she have “Overactive Characters’ Syndrome” where the characters from the last story are insisting that their next saga be transcribed?  This never happened with my non-fiction academic books. Fiction is a different animal.

What do you do when your eyes close at night but the ideas won’t turn off?

Some writers keep notepad by the bed to jot the idea. That means turning on the light and becoming even more wide awake.

Others choose to get up and write for a short period of time to avoid losing the ideas.

When the rush of thoughts seriously interrupts sleep, my approach is to go to my home office and work myself to sleep.  Not always convenient with my morning schedule but if I ignore the writing urge and manage to get to sleep; I awaken certain that I have lost the most fantastic idea known to human literature.

Writers tread along the slippery slope of compulsion in their insistence on writing at the least convenient times.  Perhaps we need to set aside some quiet time during the day to listen to the characters tell their stories and stop intruding on our sleep. Inspiration is a strange thing that is not bound by place, time or schedule.  After all, what’s losing a few hours sleep compared to working your way out of a plot confusion?