Sleep course working woopee!

Whispers quietly while looking furtively over shoulder "I have been sleeping better lately". The number of bad nights has reduced to maybe one a week and the other nights I get about 6 hours maybe a bit more, so a big improvement. And I feel better for it and to prove my point I managed 3.5k words of wip 2 last week!!
Today the sun is shining which is great as this boosts my morale almost as much as a good nights sleep. So onwards and upwards. Although there is a small cloud on the horizon. I am going to England on Thursday for nearly 2 weeks which may upset my sleep pattern and my writing opportunities. However it is to help out our daughter who has just undergone surgery, so I will make the best of it. I do intend to take my running gear as I can't go 2 weeks without running, just have to take less ordinary clothes!!
Anyway I shall be back with another update on sleep and writing in a few weeks time.

Snow and rain!!

This was the photo I wanted to add last week but for some reason wasn't able to. I'm not sure what is going on with Blogger or is it just me! Anyway the snow has gone and we have had a day or two more sunshine but now the rain has returned and it is depressing, we have had far too much rain. I need more sunshine to lift the spirits and fire the imagination. Even the daffodils are reluctant to appear.

Sleep course week 6

Well I'm not sure if I'm making much progress. I am now going to bed at 12.30am and still getting up at 7am. I am waking atleast once and sometimes two times in the night, but I do go back to sleep quite quickly so that is an improvement. But staying awake til gone midnight evey night is really quite hard and the quality of tele at that time of night is frankly awful. And getting up at 7am at the weekend is not much fun, but I shall continue for a few more weeks to try and reprogram my mind and body. Also I may find it easier just to accept that 5/6 hours sleep per night is all I am going to get and that it is enough. If I stop worrying about how much sleep I'm getting then I may sleep better anyway. All I need to do now is find enough energy to tackle some writing. The weather doesn't help much, we had a few lovely sunny days but now it's been snowing for the last three days and it's freezing cold so very depressing. Roll on spring. And for some reason I couldn't add a photo again, I think my brain is on the blink!!!

Sleep course week 3

So now the fun begins!!! Week three of the course is a whole different kettle of fish. I have to reprogram my mind to associate bed with sleep.[No snide remarks please] When I wake in the night if I am awake for more than 15 mins I have to get up until I feel sleepy again then return to bed. And using my sleep diary as the reference point I have to restrict the time I spend in bed to the time I normally manage to sleep i.e. a bit less than 6 hours. So no going to bed before 1.15am and then only if I feel sleepy and then I must get up at 7am, regardless of how much sleep I have managed!!!!! This is not going to be easy, but then I never thought it would be. I have been struggling with sleep problems for years so it cannot be a quick fix. Not sure what effect this will have on my ability to think straight and get on with my wip but if it works it can only be beneficial in the long run. So fingers crossed and I'm just off to check out the DVD list for all those late nights that are coming my way. Wish me luck!!

Insomnia rules!!

I'm still having trouble with sleeping, it seems to have been with me forever. I have tried Acupuncture several times and it works for a while then I revert to sleepless nights again. I have also tried Homeopathy and herbal remedies, nothing works. What I won't do is take sleeping pills. But it has got to the point where I feel tired all the time and it's very difficult to concentrate. So I am trying an on-line sleep course[6 weeks] that I read about in the Telegraph. It was set up by a Professor at Glasgow University and uses Cognitive Behaviour Therapy[CBT]. I have just started the second week and so far haven't got beyond the obvious behaviour such as relaxing before bed, cutting out cafeine before bed, having a comfortable bed and bedroom etc. All of which I have already addressed. But I'm hoping as the weeks progress there will be new ideas and suggestions. So I will give updates as the weeks pass. I have my fingers crossed. Meanwhile I have been spending a little time on trying to sort out where I am with wip 1. I had left it untouched for quite a while so it will take some time to see what needs doing, but I am determined to finish the 2nd draft. Meanwhile the photo is how I would like to sleep!!

January blues and help please!

Help I've just tried to download a photo and when I click on insert image I'm getting a new prompt which has changed from last week and I don't understand it. Has Blogger changed or is it me being my technophobe self. Please tell me what to do.

Well I'm not entirely sure what I have done but lets hope it works again!!! The photo is from a trip to Italy and is to cheer us all up from the January blues.

Blog birthday

Just to say that this is the 6th birthday of my blog, so happy blogday to me. I have also mentionned in a previous post that the 8th of January is the day when Isabel Allende sits down each year to start a new novel so it's not a bad day for me to have chosen. I am hoping that this will prove to be an auspicious day for re-launching my aspirations as a writer.
 This is what I scribbled this morning:

Take one step into the past
Hold onto the present
Look to the future.
Write as if your life depended on it
Every word shall be a mirror
Every sentence a search for understanding.
Don't be shy
BE BOLD.

Put your heart on the page
And it will be good.
Banish fear to the closet
Leap from the cliff
And watch your wings unfold.

So I hope my wings can hold me up and keep me flying, and that this will be a good year. Now I had better do some real work.

Bonne annee et bonne sante

Happy New Year to fellow bloggers. Obviously we survived the end of the world, and New Years Eve which was spent eating drinking and being very merry with friends over from England. Now its the start of a new year and the chance of a new beginning. Last year saw very little progress on either of the books I have been attempting to write, nor did I keep up with blogging. I did keep an eye of other bloggers posts but didn't always leave comments.
Now I want to give blogging and writing another chance. If I can't be consistant then I shall give up and move on. Life is too short and should not be wasted.
I shall give progress reports over the next few weeks on the second draft of wip one and any additions to wip two. If any of you can find time for some words of encouragement or but kicking I would appreciate it. In the meantime wish me luck, no I don't need luck I need to work and stop making excuses.

"and now we welcome the new year,
full of things that have never been."  Reiner Maria Rilke

What promise those simple lines hold for us all.