Does Insomnia Plague You When Writing?

[joyce]

I was just wondering how many of you suffer from insomnia when you are seriously working on your novel. After taking a break from seriously working on my WIP's for several weeks, the last couple of days I've started writiing again. I'm a night person anyway, so writing at night is natural for me. It's when there is peace in my house.......hubby is passed out, dogs are asleep, newly arrived home college kid is asleep and I have my alone time. For the past two nights I lay in bed afraid to look at the clock to see how much time has passed since I last looked at it. My brain can't seem to shut off from thinking about my novel. I find myself working out scenes, planning the dreaded query letter, wondering if I really suck, then before I know it hours have passed and it's heading towards 3 or 4 a.m. The next morning I wake up feeling like dog poop, especially if I've had to pop a sleeping pill to make my nonstop brain shut down. I already know I'm a little on the crazy side, but do any of you suffer something like this?

[aadams73]

Yes, I'm an extremely restless sleeper at the best of times. More so when I'm really fixated on a story.

[ChimeraCreative]

I'm a nighttime writer as well and I've always been plagued by insomnia. I don't think my compulsive writing keeps me up at night though. I find I have trouble concentrating through flicks and television shows because I have my mind on whatever my current writing project is.

But I feel for you Joyce. I suppose it's about time you restrict your daily writing window. Do a thousand words then quit cold turkey for the night. Train yourself to a certain amount and maybe you won't be driven mad at night.

-An

[joyce]

I'm a nighttime writer as well and I've always been plagued by insomnia. I don't think my compulsive writing keeps me up at night though. I find I have trouble concentrating through flicks and television shows because I have my mind on whatever my current writing project is.

But I feel for you Joyce. I suppose it's about time you restrict your daily writing window. Do a thousand words then quit cold turkey for the night. Train yourself to a certain amount and maybe you won't be driven mad at night.

-An

I do the same thing....I'm watching a movie and before I know it I've missed a big scene because I found myself thinking about my novel. With my first novel I had to put myself on a "no writing after 11:30 p.m." schedule. Otherwise I was getting crappy sleep night after night, and after a few weeks of that I felt like the walking dead. The strange thing is, I may feel like poop now, but let the ole clock hit 9 p.m. and suddenly I will come alive and be ready to think. I think I'm just a weirdo. It's back to treating myself like a child and having a strict bedtime schedule or I get put on restriction. I think I'm part vampire....I do my best work at night.

[mscelina]

the writing has taken over my life anyway *shrug* and sleep is overrated. I've been pounding out 20 hour days for the past two weeks and haven't quite missed the sleep yet.

But, when I do sleep, I dream my WIP. That's very helpful.

[Stew21]

Insomnia plagues me most of the time anyway, but when I'm writing it is so much worse.
I'm a restless light sleeper even when I do sleep, so many times my head drifts to thinking about the wip, then to fretting over some piece of it, to brainstorming scenes, and a lot of times, I just get out of bed and write at ridiculous morning before daylight hours.

It's just the way I'm made.

[reigningcatsndogs]

Yup, me too, but I actually love it. When that happens, I get up, turn on Chip (my laptop -- I love to name everything important to me) and start to write. I tend to write better, am way more focused and have a blast doing it, and when I get done with the thought I was working on, I sleep like a babe. It's just more expeditious for me to give in to the need, satisfy it and move on, cause otherwise I will be up all night.
This happens to me enough that there are days when Chip comes to bed with us because I've been on a bit of a roll with my writing -- not my husband's ideal of a threesome, but that's HIS problem :).

[CaroGirl]

Years ago I suffered from insomnia. Couldn't fall asleep to save my life. Now I'm so exhausted from looking after kids, I fall asleep pretty quickly. I do always think about whatever I'm working on just before I drift off, though.

[ccarver30]

Yep! Also a night writer. I can't write before 8pm. I write for about 2 hours. I have to fall asleep to the TV or else my novel consumes me. Try having the TV on- it will occupy your brain until you fall asleep. :)

[JimmyB27]

I was just wondering how many of you suffer from insomnia when you are seriously working on your novel.

When I am working on my novel, when I'm not working on my novel, when I'm not working on anything at all, when I'm absolutely flat out.

This week, I've had a cold, and I haven't really slept at all since Saturday night.

[joyce]

Years ago I suffered from insomnia. Couldn't fall asleep to save my life. Now I'm so exhausted from looking after kids, I fall asleep pretty quickly. I do always think about whatever I'm working on just before I drift off, though.

Now that would be a solution that I fondly remember......have some kids around the house. Mine is 23 so she does not drive me crazy anymore. Unfortunately I'm spayed and neutered and my friend menopause has stopped by to greet me. At this point I'm a just a "sports model" so I guess kids won't be a solution. I could borrow my friends though...I'm sure she would not mind at all.

[willietheshakes]

I'm a morning writer - up at 4 am and off to the desk with a carafe of coffee. I get to bed at about 11, so, no, insomnia is NOT a problem.

[ZannaPerry]

Sometimes. Like last night, I was seriously needing to go to sleep because I have somewhat of a big day today but my MC just wouldn't stop talking to me. She was getting kind of annoying. A trait I should add to her. Haha....

[Azraelsbane]

Yup, went to sleep at 4-5am two nights in a row. Not to mention that I wake up and rush to my laptop in the middle of the night (or early morning as it were) and type up new ideas that spring to mind while lying in bed.

[JoNightshade]

I don't have insomnia while writing my novel... I have insomnia when querying. Or when I know anyone else is reading my work (ie betas).

I lay there at night, stomach churning, imagining my book through other people's eyes. If it's queries, I fantasize about getting a request for a full and then an agent and then a book deal and then worldwide recognition... you get the point. ;)

[Azraelsbane]

I don't have insomnia while writing my novel... I have insomnia when querying. Or when I know anyone else is reading my work (ie betas).

I lay there at night, stomach churning, imagining my book through other people's eyes. If it's queries, I fantasize about getting a request for a full and then an agent and then a book deal and then worldwide recognition... you get the point. ;)

I haven't started querying yet, but I often dream about agents reading my manuscript and laughing, this is right before they bring out the zippo and torch it to a Marilyn Manson song.

[scarletpeaches]

Insomnia plagues me all the time!

[joyce]

I haven't started querying yet, but I often dream about agents reading my manuscript and laughing, this is right before they bring out the zippo and torch it to a Marilyn Manson song.

LOL I know that feeling well. I can feel the flames while laying in bed.....or maybe it's the hot flashes.

[sunna]

Not so much that I can't sleep because of writing, but that I forget to. If I get really caught up in a scene I'll just sit there pounding away until I realize it's 2 am and I have to get up in 4 hours. Bleagh.

I'm a little bit of an insomniac anyway, though. It takes me a few hours to fall asleep on the best of nights.

[joyce]

Scarlet's avatar looks like me stepping into query hell!

[ZannaPerry]

Oh, my Lord, scarlett! I've seen your avatar before and I don't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for that woman. But I think I'll take the latter and laugh...

[joyce]

I just wish I knew for sure what the dear lady was falling into.....a box, stairwell, gates of hell. I know I should not laugh but it is funny.

[Melanie Nilles]

back on topic, I tend to not sleep well when I'm in full creative mode. I can't let the story go and it keeps me from getting much sleep, but it's a good kind of insomnia :)

[lfraser]

I don;t think writing gives me insomnia (although I am a chronically poor sleeper), although I often feel restless during the day because of it -- not really sure why; angst? brain overload? dissatisfaction with job?

One thing that helps me is to review the next scene I'm going to write after I turn out the lights. It helps focus me and I find it sometimes actuallly helps me go to sleep -- sort of like counting sheep, only more interesting.

[joyce]

Thanks everyone for sharing with me.

[Ava Jarvis]

Hell yes.

My job lends itself to destroying patterns of sleep, so I am allowed to have Ambien, though I make my little allotments last as long as possible, especially so that something awful, like needing higher dosages, doesn't happen.

If you are not allowed to have Ambien or can't afford it or don't want to become dependent on it, then I find that Nighty Night from Traditional Medicinals is the next best thing. The normal Sleepytime tea from Celestial Seasonings does nothing for me, not even after three cups of it, whereas the recommended three cups (in both cases, slowly over a couple hours before bed) of Nighty Night is akin to half a pill of Ambien.

I have not yet dared to try Sleepytime Extra though, which supposedly contains one of the herbs that's more potent than what's already in Nighty Night.

I keep a notebook and pen by my bed to make my muse feel better.

[wayndom]

No, but I am "plagued" by middle-of-the-night ideas which compel me to get out of bed and write them down before I forget them (or fall back asleep). For this reason, I always leave my computer in sleep mode while working on a novel.

And I put "plagued" in quotes because those ideas are usually my best, so I'm quite happy to have to get out of bed and jot them down...

[PeeDee]

Years of living in weird places and traveling in weird ways have made me a hair-trigger light sleeper anyway, but writing doesn't usually keep me up. Not in awhile.

Actually, I sometimes have the opposite problem: if the scene is coming really tough, the first thing my ever-helpful muse suggests is "Hey, that is a mighty comfortable looking couch just over there..." and I suddenly want a nap. :)

[She_wulf]

Hell yes.

My job lends itself to destroying patterns of sleep, so I am allowed to have Ambien, though I make my little allotments last as long as possible, especially so that something awful, like needing higher dosages, doesn't happen.


Ditto.

My job not only entail stress, but shifting hours. One week I work a normal 45 hrs, go home, have weekends off, take care of the kids, the next, I'm working 80+ and going to four states.

I have to take Ambien so I don't go crazy (read depression/mild bi-polar caused by lack of sleep).

Oh, and add writing a story who's characters poke you awake in the middle of the night, and yeah, insomnia's a problem.

Natural remedies don't even do it for me anymore, but I cut out the caffeine (all of it) after noon. Relaxing, psuedo-meditation (I don't do yoga, that drove me to the tight white coat faster than anything because of the music), helps.

I wonder if you could do yoga to Megadeth?

[MelodyO]

This thread makes me feel so much better that it's not just me. I don't lie down in bed at night so much as fall into my WIP. I just can't turn it off, and I've been running on four or five hours of sleep for the last couple weeks. I'm totally taking some Nyquil tonight and going to bed at 11.

[birdfeeder]

Insomnia and writers, un-bedfellows--I belong to this group as well!

[Ava Jarvis]

Just last night I couldn't sleep (again), having had an intermittent nightmare about parts of speech.

I kid you not.

Stupid, stupid, stupid muse.

[Jamesaritchie]

If seriously working on a novel created insomnia, I wouldn't have slept for most of my life. I suspect long breaks are more likely to create insomnia than is constant, daily writing, so I don't take long breaks.