Has the finger of death to be laid on the tumult of life from time to time lest it rend us asunder? Are we so made that we have to take death in small doses daily or we could not go on with the business of living?
Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928)
With the pandemic throwing life off-balance, you may find yourself awake until the wee hours of the night, and dreaming weird dreams when you finally fall into a slumber.
Perhaps you’ve stumbled into thoughts you wouldn’t have otherwise touched during the “old normal,” causing you to fret instead of relax.
As Pennsylvania-based therapist Christy Beck tells Quartz, “Sleep disturbance is a common trauma response, along with anxiety and depression.”
We perceive the pandemic as a threat, albeit an invisible one. Even if we can’t see it, our body activates its fight-or-flight response.
You might also want to consider your extended phone use, suggests psychologist Hailey Meaklim. “The light emitted from phones signals to our ‘clocks’ that it is still daytime,” she says in the same article.
Perhaps because we’re no longer pressured to wake up early for work or school, we’ve become more cavalier with our digital habits.
If you’re having trouble sleeping, try listening to The Get Sleepy Podcast. Here, soothing voices tell stories, easing you into dream land. Personally, I find that the vocal quality of the speakers, is enough to calm me down.
Another recommendation I’d like to make is The Relaxation Channel: Music to Calm the Mind. I use it to take naps, snoozing being my way of clearing my thoughts—in preparation to read or write.
To end, I wish to remind you to be patient. Blaming yourself for not immediately falling asleep will only serve to delay your forty winks. These are strange times, so practice extra kindness toward your own person.
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