Tag Archives: insomnia

Daily Writing Prompt: July 3 2026

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Daily writing prompt
What do you do to improve your sleep?
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There are a few things that I’m doing to improve my sleep. I’ll get right into it.

For starters, I turn off all lights in my bedroom. This includes lights of my phone and laptop computer. I close my computer and put my phone face down so the blue light doesn’t disturb me.

Sometimes I will sleep with a fan running in the background. The white noise calms me and muffles the noise outside the window of my apartment.

I don’t usually watch the news at least an hour before bed. It’s too overwhelming to have the world’s problems on my mind when trying to sleep.

I now drink only one cup of coffee after breakfast. Most days I have only two cups of coffee, always one of them before breakfast. Don’t need the caffeine jitters keeping me awake.

I almost never eat anything a few hours before bedtime. Lunch is usually my biggest meal of the day and I usually try to go kind of light during dinner.

I try to keep my bedroom a little cooler than normal. This is tougher during the summer heatwaves. But it is worth it for better sleeping.

If I feel tired during the afternoon, I will nap. I don’t drink much caffeine anymore, especially after lunch. The only times I drink caffeine with dinner are when I want to be up late.

There are times when I want to stay up most of the night. I limit those to no more than once a week. Usually if I want to be up in the middle of the night, I will go to bed early and set an alarm for like 2 or 3 am. I still get decent sleep for a few hours and the quiet solitude of the middle of the night.

Most mornings I’m up by 5am regardless of when I go to bed. But if I am tired in the afternoon, I will nap rather than take caffeine. I think these things have helped me with my sleep routine as much as anything.

Sleep Problems And Mental Illness

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One of the early warning cues to future mental health problems is changes in sleep patterns.  I’ve been sleeping only five to six hours a night for the last two weeks.  I usually average eight hours a night.  Usually when I sleep too little, eventually I’ll have problems with irritability and anxiety.  When I sleep too much I’ll have problems with depression and lethargy.

While not needing much sleep usually allows me to be more productive, it comes at a price.  In time I’ll become more anxious and easily angered.  After dealing with mental illness problems for almost twenty years, I’ve come to recognize long term trends and problems before they arise.  One way I’m trying to get back into a more even sleep pattern is reducing caffeine.  This is a tough one for me as I love both coffee and black tea.  I also won’t eat at least four hours before bed because, for me, eating anything gives me a boost and makes me stay awake later.

But this time it isn’t the late nights that are the issue.  It’s the early starting mornings.  I have literally been awake before sunrise probably all but two days in the last two weeks.  Not sure what to make of this.  I’m thinking it’s possible that all these years I was convinced I was a night owl was really my caffeine addiction talking.  If I was smarter, I’d go a couple days without any caffeine and see if that resets my sleep patterns.

In short, my sleep patterns have been heavily slanted to not getting much sleep lately.  I can tell it’s starting to take it’s toll.  I’ve been slightly more irritable, anxious, and more short tempered than usual.  It’s time to change this trend before it leads to more serious issues.