I woke up feeling great. I took my regular dose of amitriptyline last night, went to bed slightly later than planned and went straight to sleep. I might have woken up once, but I ponked myself in the forehead (it’s where the play button on my headphones is) and went back to sleep. It was hard to get out of bed – took me a full ninety minutes to convince myself that I was staying awake and wanted to climb out of the nest with a cuddly Geiger in it. But I did, and felt immensely refreshed. I haven’t slept like that for around a month. It was pretty great. So right now I’m feeling very little in the way of regret for ending the experiment, and the sheer relief at catching a good number of Zs has rather overwhelmed any of my other doubts or concerns for now. In time, who knows? I felt an immediate sense of re-engagement with stuff and interest in the world. If anything, I feel foolish for even trying to do without this kind of sleep.
As ever, this is only a day one and I shouldn’t be leaping to conclusions or anything like that, but it’s been a good day one and I’m really happy about it. I am slowly winding down now, with an “Impossibrew Enhanced Non-Alc Red Ale” which is performing some relaxing function or other. I’ve also been to see the lady I do creative mentoring with once a month, which is always a curious highlight of the week. It’s good to bring some additional light into the lives of others (I guess…) and as ever I found it made me think about stories and creativity in a positive way. My main goal now is to drag myself out of bed at the right time and catch back up with, and maintain, my daily routines of exercise and writing. Oh, and work too. It all feels a lot more plausible and appealing today than it did yesterday.