Tag Archives: mental health

I’m not sure how many of you guys live in places that still participate in the Daylight Savings Time change. But I do live in an area where DST is still observed and we have been under its influence for just about two weeks. For most people, the time change disturbs their sleep for one or two days and usually I’m the same way. But this time change seems to have taken a larger toll on my sleep schedule than usual.

I’m not quite sure how to explain exactly how badly it has been affecting me. It has most drastically affected my anxiety levels and my late-night paranoia. I’ve gotten anywhere from 4 hours of sleep to 30 minutes of sleep each night. There have been a few exceptions where I’ve gotten 10-12 hours of sleep. It’s a very strange schedule and I’m not quite sure how to knock myself out of it.

I’ve been debating multiple medical fixes including Z-Quil, doctor’s visits, psychiatrists, or essential oils. But I haven’t quite decided which to go with or try first. So far the only routine based remedies have been reading for roughly an hour in bed, watching BBC’s Planet Earth (and accompanying offshoots), and listening to Josh Groban before bed.

They still aren’t as effective as I need them to be for sleeping. They have however, greatly improved the status of my To Read list and my To Watch list. My current book of choice is Terrier by Tamora Pierce. I’m not quite sure what drew me back to Terrier. It’s been sitting on a stack of books next to my bed for over two years now. But for some reason it was the only book I wanted to read to get my brain to sleep.

There’s just something about Tamora Pierce books that is comforting and easy to escape into. They’re like their only little fictional sanctuary universe. I would definitely recommend them.

-Written 3/25/19

Update (4/7/19): It has been two weeks since I wrote the bulk of this post. Since then I have finished Terrier and moved on to Bloodhound. The next post will be a review. I’ve almost run out of Planet Earth (and company) episodes to watch.

But I have begun sleeping better. There are still a few days where getting to sleep is hard but for the most part I’m back on a somewhat normal schedule. I still can’t describe quite how bad it was. And I definitely couldn’t tell you why it was happening to begin with. I’m not even sure what made it stop. It just went away. I’m really glad it stopped but I’m also concerned it could come back. And I don’t want that.