Sleep

I often do not get enough. I've been reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, his memoir about his writing life in Paris in the 1920s, and he talks about writing early in the morning while his wife slept. There was a time when I worked this way, rising early and sitting down to write by shortly after 6:00 am. It was a fantastic season of life because I would be fairly productive and would basically wind up a days work by 10:30. That may seem short but writing well for a four hour block is quite exhausting and if one goes longer quality tends to suffer. And getting away from the desk and the work of writing frees you up to subconsciously process matters so you're ready for the next session.

I'd like to switch back to this kind of writing model but I have trouble falling asleep. Most of the time I will try to go to sleep around midnight and remain awake until 2:30 or 3:00 am and it's not too uncommon for me to be awake at 4:00. My mind simply doesn't get tired. I can still wake up at almost anytime, but I am not able to wake up early and work creatively - that part of my brain is sapped from jumping through nocturnal hoops - if I'm not getting enough sleep. If I'm up that late I don't seem able to shift into valuable writing time until after 10:00 am or so.

But I'll be trying to get to bed earlier. I know for a fact that if I try to fall asleep around 9:30 or 10:00 I have a very high chance of falling to sleep quickly, but after 11:00 it usually takes 2 - 3 hours to drop off.