Blue light has been shown to have a calming effect on the mind.
image source.

Sucking at sleep. It probably means you are a thinker, but it can also really affect you physiologically.

I suck at sleeping sometimes. Especially when the Steem price is over 2 bucks and there are plans and deals to be made. With a 4 year old son who is super active, it's hard to get a lot done during "normal people" hours. Those wee hours of the night where no one is stirring have been golden to me, and the silent spaces found in the middle of the night, pregnant with new ideas, have been invaluable to me. That said, I hit a brick wall, of sorts, this week.

Working at a bar on the weekends can throw off your circadian rhythm, and it takes a couple days for that internal clock to readjust. Since this last weekend I have basically just been ignoring said clock, and have watched my mental and physical well being take a significant hit because of it. Last night, basically out of sheer necessity, I got some sleep. Here I am, feeling much more physically and mentally sound at 5:44 in the a.m., writing this to you, dear Steemian.

So, what were some of the effects of my recent sleep-deprived bender?

• Problems/perceived problems become extremely magnified.
• Self-image/self-esteem seems to take a hit.
• Attitude towards others degrades. In the sleep deprived state, other individuals seem more hostile/unfeeling.
• Of course, physical fatigue.
• Creative flow is stifled after too much deprivation.

How did I finally get to sleep?

Well, as I mentioned above, basically through sheer exhaustion. However, I did something else that helped. I eliminated distraction. My wife and son sleep in a separate room, usually, as my son sometimes stirs in the night and it wakes me. Being that I need to be fully rested to successfully face the hordes of kids I teach each day, I sleep separately. Funnily enough, though, this practice has made it harder to get a good night's sleep.

Having my own space and a connection to the internet makes it easy to get lost on rabbit trails in the dark while my wife thinks I am snoring. If I were to be in the same room with her and my son, I would feel a bit guilty for this as she needs to tend to him, and I'd be just cruising the net. Plus, the light would distract my son. Anyway, where I am going with all this is that I chose to sleep in the same room as them last night, and slept like a baby. No portals to researching nuclear physics at 3 a.m. No window to the world of sexy french maids. Just. Darkness.

ZzzzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzzzz.

image source.

So, as certain as I am that I will likely be burning the midnight oil again sometime soon, I think for now I am going to try out this new pattern of....ehhh...actually sleeping. I know that my restless mind is gonna be something that needs to be soothed, and to do that, I plan on running. In fact, I signed up for a marathon yesterday to give me a goal to connect to said running. I gotta have a big, psycho goal (like me who doesn't run, ever, running a full marathon) otherwise running is kind of meaningless to me.

There have been a lot of great posts here on Steemit about sleep recently, and I wish I could remember where they were so I could link to them. I did find this video on YouTube yesterday which I think is helpful. It teaches a simple method for calming your mind and falling asleep in about three minutes. I hope it, and this post, help some of you sleep-deprived Steemians out there get some much needed shut eye.

~KafkA

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Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)