SLEEPLESS IN RALEIGH

Yawn---so sorry. If you are a serious writer, then you feel happiest when you are writing. It is what drives your life. It's to your emotional well-being like water and air are to your body. Unfortunately, it can also make you sleep deprived.

I was exhausted when I fell into bed last night. My mind went quiet, my body went quiet and I slipped into a deep restful sleep. POW, ZAP, 2a.m. arrives and I am wide awake, mind racing, charging off in every direction. There are plot lines being developed, paragraphs being written in my head that honestly make no sense because they're a hodge-podge of the two projects I'm currently working on.

I slip out of bed and decide a visit to the bathroom might allow me to flush these imaginings away and then I can go back to sleep. Climbing back into bed I punch my pillow a few times, fluffing it up and venting some frustration and then I sigh, take a deep breath and think "sleep"! My eyes are shut but I am wide awake in novel central. Buzz, buzz, buzz. I punch my pillow a few more times, flip from side to side, check the clock (3:30a.m), mumble to myself and try again and again to get back to that wonderful quiet restful sleep area I was in just a few short hours ago. How my husband manages to sleep through all this commotion is a mystery to me.

Now, I know some of you are thinking...why didn't you just get up and write, you ninny? And my answer would be...just because my mind is wide awake, doesn't mean my body is. My body is exhausted. I'm not one of these super-humans who can survive on just 3-4 hours of sleep per night. There is no point in me getting up cause my fingers won't work on the keyboard and the things that are running through my mind really shouldn't be put on paper anyway. I think that stories are supposed to make sense.

I decide my only saving grace at this point is to jump on board the "Ambien" train. I don't take a whole one cause I'd like to be up before noon, but a quarter of a tablet is just enough to quiet my monkey brain antics and allow me to get three more hours of sleep.

I read all the time about writer's who work all day and then type into the wee hours of the night. One thing you can count on...I will NEVER be one of those writers.

YAWN...I could use a nap.