Night Howls
Comments
-
Goodonya for the foot thingie @Flaneuse...great news. My go to when doing the bleary eyed midnight 1 am, 2 am, 3 am bastard is also not reading or the computer ...too stimulating for me. I grab my plainest knitting project underway, usually a baby blanket or somesuch with no needing to concentrate pattern, and click away until my eyes get the droops. i then try sleeping again, and if no luck after half an hour or so, back to the clicking. My obsession, not surprisingly, is yarn and vintage patterns. I have (ahem) 28 large storage bins stacked up in the garage. filled with yarn. Mind you, I churn through yarn at quite a pace, but if I ever see something sooooo squishable and soft or a lovely colour, I just can't resist buying....I'll do something with it one day...yeah right...2
-
@JJ70 Your yarn collection must be a work of art in itself.
@kezmusc Thanks for the tip about the 14 months from end of chemo. I'm not going to expect too much of the sleep hygiene thing. Certainly not going to give it only 10 mins to try to fall asleep, nor 5 am alarms! (I did that for too many years when I was working),0 -
@JJ70 I can identify with the stationery thing too. But I can't afford it any more and I really don't have any use for it now that I'm so old. I launched into the pink and purple plastic folders and boxes thing during my treatments. Actually I was just thinking this morning that I should move the boxes from the dining room table into the office, now that my appointments are reducing to occasional checkups and physio for the time being, until my changeover surgery. That might be a significant "moving on" step.0
-
Flaneuse,
years ago my psychologist suggested a similar way to deal with my stress ... He called it the "jar on the shelf" I was allowed to remove the jar from the shelf for 30 mins per night once my kids were in bed take out the worries and think about them but then put them back into the Jar and put it back onto the shelf ( all imaginary and no shelf) I thought that he was weird but hell it worked. I started to get perspective back about the disabilities that were looming at me from my young son, and the baby I was carrying (surprise) and within 2 weeks I had my anxieties under control again.
I agree with Kezmusc sleep gets better the further out from treatment you are.
@Sister
last night was a dozey went to bed at 10 fell asleep by 10.30 wide awake at midnight and not back to sleep until 4am ho hum.....
1 -
@SoldierCrab It's amazing, actually. I've heard counsellors talk about "locking your worries in a drawer" or "pulling a blind down over them" and other stuff. But that's just not dealing with them. This method actually allows me to deal with them, but only in that allotted timeslot. Don't know why I never thought of it myself.0
-
Another thing I do is I have a note pad and pen next to my bed. If I have something on my mind, even something as silly as "Mustn't forget to get parsley tomorrow" I write it down. Otherwise I fret that having remembered it then, I would forget it in the morning. Snippets of songs that I can't remember all the words, or who the artist was, and I want to google it the following day, I do the same. I find that writing it down then, releases me from the worry of forgetting it the following day, only to have it rattling about in my head like a pea in a tin the following night.2
-
@Flaneuse That is a relief about your toe. One less thing to worry about.
Your psychologist sounds excellent. Mine gave me the same advice about a worry appointment during the day and it sometimes works for me. But tbh, right now I'm doing a Scarlett O'Hara and puttinfg off thinking about everything until tomorrow... And as we know, tomorrow never comes!
My blue light filter on my phone goes on after dinner. I'm like @Zoffiel, really trying hard not to pick up the phone in the middle of the night except in extremis. Never done the getting out of bed to do something else though.
I totally get the manchester collection, the china, the shiny things, all of it. I'm a lifelong collector, always have two or three on the go. I'd LOVE to indulge them all more but the $$, and the space. Watch out if one of the kids ever leave home...
0 -
I used to love "things" then one day (pre BC), I suddenly felt that they were weighing me down and since then, that feeling has never gone away. I still admire things but I no longer have that covetous urge.1
-
-
I'm thoroughly enjoying all the hot flush jokes on Murphy Brown! Though I wish I didn't 'get' them...1
-
The flushes or the jokes?2
-
My psych's suggestion about "worry project management" at a set time each day is working. The only reason my sleep is being interrupted now is joint pain - not worries. So that's progress.2
-
That's fantastic @Flaneuse. Mine's got me writing my feelings down when they threaten to overwhelm. The theory being that by externalising them I place some distance between them and myself. Kind of like meditation. The effort of getting them out onto the page seems to be somewhat calming. K xox1
