Sleep Disorders and Writing

[VenerableOne]

Hello, I used to write a lot when I was on college and I would always suffer from this strange phenomenon. It would literally feel like writing sapped my energy and I would find myself sleeping an extra 4-5 hours a day that I wrote.

Recently I got back into it and have written up to 15k words in the last 3 days and havnt experienced that until recently. I take medication for narcolepsy now, I was diagnosed after college (yay me) but this still happened!

Has anyone gone through something similar? Is this a manifestation of my sleep disorder or do other writers feel like this sometimes and my disorder only makes it worse?

Thanks

 

[Placeholder]

Bring it up with your PCP.

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Possibly look at creatine, mention it to your PCP and pharmacist:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166432824001384

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If you have a smartwatch, see what it says about pulse and blood 02.

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Maybe break up writing with small walks?

 

[RivCA]

Definitely break it up with small walks, even if it's around your writing space. Alternatively, when I find myself starting to lose focus, I stop what I'm doing and belt out a few pushups to burn some excess energy and get my focus back.

Still, you do you. Speaking with your doctor isn't a bad idea, though.

 

[Placeholder]

Along with your PCP, I'd wave the question at reddit's askdocs, medical, and notably biohacker subs.

 

[VenerableOne]

Definitely break it up with small walks, even if it's around your writing space. Alternatively, when I find myself starting to lose focus, I stop what I'm doing and belt out a few pushups to burn some excess energy and get my focus back.

Still, you do you. Speaking with your doctor isn't a bad idea, though.

I appreciate the thoughts, unfortunately once I start having an episode nothing helps it. It's hard to understand without having the personal experience. I have asked more medically inclined folks but then they dont understand the mental strain of writing. It's unfortunately something that in my experience has gotten me a lot of dismissive criticism whenever I bring it up, part of why it took so long to get a proper diagnosis.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Sleep disorders and artists seem to go hand in hand, unfortunately. Salvadore Dali, for example, found sleep "a waste of time" and avoided it. I have apnea and occasional "hypersomnolance"