How-To Guarantee a Nightmare Filled Sleep
Who doesn’t enjoy the thought of tossing and turning all night in fits of restlessness brought on by nightmares? Woohoo!
The secret is this: Work right until the moment you go to bed.
It’s really as simple as that. Work, work, and work some more. When you’re exhausted, go straight to bed (don’t pass GO!) and try to sleep. I can guarantee a night filled with nightmares.
The nightmares will almost certainly be work related:
- Your boss turning into a mutant killer.
- Forgetting your entire presentation while standing naked in front of a crowd that’s throw garbage at you.
- Unfinished tasks and to-do lists running through your mind over and over and over and over, driving you insane.
- Losing out on a big client or project because you forgot to do something.
The possibilities are endless. And unpleasant.
Lately, this has been happening to me all too often, brought on by an immense amount of work and increasing pressure. Ah, the joys of stress!
Die work-life balance! Die! Die!
Such is often, unfortunately, the mantra of the startup entrepreneur (or the freelancer) that’s trying to do everything at once and build up something immensely successful. It’s a shame, but it’s often reality.
I would never suggest you stop working at night. As nice as it would be not to have to do so, it’s simply a reality of life. Instead, here are my suggestions:
- Do a brain dump. Just before you’re going to stop working and about to collapse, do a brain dump of things to remember, and accomplish the following day. Throw it on a piece of paper. Spit it out. Just get it out of your head. It serves as a “closing point” for the day’s efforts, even though so much is left unfinished. (Brain dumping at the beginning of the week might help too.)
- Take time off. After the brain dump don’t hop right into bed. Take at least 15-30 minutes off to do something mindless - watch a bit of TV (preferably not something like the Exorcist) or read a magazine. Find something that’ll get you to laugh…because laughing is a great way to relax and take your mind off things. Or go for a little bit of inspiration. You don’t want to think, you want to be distracted. And it’s OK to get distracted, you won’t forget anything for the next day, because you did the brain dump.
No one wants nightmares (far as I know), but jumping from your keyboard to your pillow without pausing for a moment and consciously preparing yourself for the best possible sleep will lead to all kinds of nightmarish trouble.
photo by The Tidal Rabbit
I sleep ok, but if I don’t do a brain dump, I can’t meditate. I need, to write it down to convince my brain that I don’t need to keep reminding myself.
Hmmm .. good advice, Ben. Yesterday, I woke up dazed and confused, convinced I had a PR campaign to run. It was all clearly laid out in my head - I could even see the colours of the press kits! Took me about 2 minutes of rationalizing to realize I’d (yet again) invented a campaign/event for an imaginary client during the night. On the up side, I now have about 5 campaigns ready to go for the right client!
Great tips. I definitely need to take 30-45 min before bed, regardless of how tired I am. Otherwise I spend three times that long trying to shut the brain down. The old pen and paper next to the bed is always good way to clear out those brilliant ideas that keep you awake at 3:00 AM.
You are totally right. If I am on the computer before going to bed I just can’t get to sleep for ages. I have to wind down, usually in front of the TV.
Yeah, brain dumps are necessary for me too. It really helps to have a set plan of how to unwind before bed…otherwise my mind will still be spinning all over the place with work and what-not.
Man, does this ever relate to my week. I was working from 5am straight to 10pm with maybe a one-hour break for the past two weeks. I’ve been waking up at three am drenched in cold sweat. Can’t remember why though…
My problem lately has definitely been work overload versus no personal time. All new entrepreneurs have to work hard, yes. After a couple of years of work, things should be better, not worse, right?
The solution? A full internal restructuring of the business to redistribute tasks more effectively, cut some out, streamline others, and get some “me” time back in there. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, because I decided keeping me happy was more important than a burnout.
These are great tips, for sure, but your post also made me laugh quite a lot. Just caught me in the right mood. Lots of silly images going around my head.
I’d probably not be laughing if I had lots of nightmares though…and I’m off to bed shortly. Ooh er!
@Martin: I’m glad you laughed a bit … that was part of the point.
And thank you to everyone else for commenting, I appreciate it. And I hope you all beat the nightmares that grab hold of us!
The other night I had a nightmare, but it was related to watching ‘Chuck’ on NBC. Chuck’s sister was poisoned, and I dreamt that I was poisoned. I started to convulse and scream and then I woke up.
My kitten was fast asleep on my chest. Not sure if that had anything to do with it.
[…] Ben Yoskovitz created an interesting post today on How-To Guarantee a Nightmare-Filled Sleep.Here’s a short outline:No one wants nightmares (far as I know), but jumping from your keyboard to your pillow without pausing for a moment and consciously preparing yourself for the best possible sleep will lead to all kinds of nightmarish trouble. … […]
This is because the work you do so frantically up until sleep is the work that you’re subconsciously choosing in the hope that it will prevent those nightmares from manifesting in the daytime (if not the images of the dream, then the emotions).
Here’s last night’s dream: The wolf that I am is smugly outrunning these huge, ugly, slavering monsters chasing me. I’m low to the ground, I’m fast, I’m confident… and I suddenly realize that I’ve badly misjudged my ability to outrun these deadly creatures. They’re going to catch me and tear me to shreds.
No dream interpreter needed.
I did get the humor in the blog. I however felt that such nightmares are common for people deeply involved in their work, primarily because of fear of failure. If at the deepest level one can accept that failure is a perfectly acceptable development in human endeavor, nightmares stop. Trust me, they do.
Woah! I tend to do just that, not passing GO and going straight to bed. I don’t have nightmares, but my sleep is much less restful.
What’s weird is that I don’t think I ever realized it until I read your post. Thanks!
Boy can I relate!
Back when I used to develop web sites, my dreams would consist of me alt-tabbing back and forth between code and the design in a web browser. I’d dream of every little tweak I’d make between refreshes.
These days, I type in my sleep. I actually see myself pushing down each individual key in the dreams. Sometimes, I write entire articles. Of course I can never remember them when I wake up.
I work from home (and have two toddlers) so the brain dump is key. I get sucked into TV though (or dream about the plots) so my most effective brain dump is cleaning up the kitchen or packing lunches for the next day. No reason the brain dump can’t be productive, right?
[…] finally, over at The Instigator Blog, Ben has a great tip if you want to ensure you have a night filled with nightmares! How? Use your computer right up until you go to bed! This was another post that hit home for me. […]
Mark Twain had advice for writers that I’ve always gone by. It definitely helps you get a good night’s sleep.
The advice was this:
Quit when you’re writing well, not when you’re struggling.
I think it’s good advice for anyone. Finish on an upbeat note, with a sense of accomplishment — not when you’re stymied, in which case you’lll inevitably toss and turn with thoughts of the obstacle that awaits first thing in the morning.
Thank you for the post. Good subject.
I got a habit from an old business mentor of mine. Read 15 minutes from a POSITIVE book every night before you go to bed. At worse, it’ll be a pause, at best you might actually learn something and grow as a human being. And it’s 91.5 hours of reading a year, which at my pace is around 15 books. I’ll bet if you read 15 positive books a year, you might have less nightmares and be a bit closer to your goals.
Nice post Ben.
Because of some not-so-fun pregnancy issues, I have a lot of trouble sleeping as of late. This is compounded by the fact that for the last several nights I’ve been dreaming about blogging. Writing posts. Talking to other bloggers. It is extremely weird.
I think I need to get away from the computer a little more often, eh?
@shane: That’s a good way of approaching things - read a bit from a positive book every night. I may try and do that and see how it goes.
@lorna: Yes, Lorna. I think so. *smile* Hang in there!