Twenty sixth in the 1K a Day Motivational Series, in which I talk about something that happened in the previous week that could have or did prevent me from writing a minimum of 1,000 words on a given day, or possibly talk about something that provided support to get me through the day.

Sleep. What a bother, am I right?

This past week I have been getting four to six hours of sleep a night, which is obviously not enough. It’s not for lack of trying most nights. I’m just finding myself busy and getting into this mode where I’m working right up until it’s time to wind down and go to sleep, and then I’m unable to wind down and do the sleep part.

Which is shit.

And then you might think “well hell if you’re not sleeping you can be getting more work done” and I say bollocks to that. Well, maybe. Over a short span of time that’s a little true. Instead of trying to sleep I have done some “fuck it let’s write” nights when a couple hours have passed and I just can’t shut down the brain.

But that only lasts so long before your scant few hours of sleep each night is effecting your physical and mental faculties. Yesterday specifically I started to recognize the wearing effect of several days in a row of mild sleep deprivation in what a lot of people know as a minor form of “word salad” aka a jumbling of words or phrases that don’t make any sense. In this case it’s just mental exhaustion and the wrong words end up coming out, especially while typing. Or words get left out altogether.

Not so conducive to writing a story, or a blog post.

Each day that passes where I have trouble shutting down and getting a full night’s rest makes the next day worse. The trouble compounds until I’m experiencing mild insomnia. Insomnia leads to trouble concentrating, which makes getting the daily word count harder. So I spend longer working on it. So I work later into the day. It all piles on top and eventually something has to give.

Or I have to take some time, organize my thoughts, disengage from other things so I can get my work done, get that work done, and then properly shut down for an evening or two so I don’t burnout from mental exhaustion.

It’s not as bad as all that this time around, but I’ve been there before. You have to get the rest, you have to figure out what’s causing your body to keep from shutting down and your brain from turning off for a little while. Deal with it and get the rest you most certainly need.

And always remember to write the hell on.