Should You Write or Should You Sleep?

What is Lack of Sleep Costing You?

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

One of my dogs had to go out at 12:30am last night. Another vomited next to my pillow around 2:00am and I had to get up and clean it up. Thanks to that disgusting mess, I didn’t get back to sleep for hours. Yes, my dogs sleep on my bed and sometimes I wish they didn’t because they really interfere with my sleep. Many nights I get lousy sleep but it’s not always my dogs’ fault. Sometimes it’s my husband’s snoring. Other times, it’s just my mind working overtime.

Common advice for our physical and health is to get enough sleep. You’ll think better and work more efficiently, they say. But this can be a struggle for many of us.

Sleep is important and we need about seven to nine hours of sleep. I used to do well with five or six hours, and I felt fine. I got a lot of writing done. I don’t think I’ve ever slept nine hours. I remember working until midnight and then having to get up at 5am to get my kids off to school and to go to work. But as I started to get older, the lack of sleep started to bother me more.

When I sat down to write in the evenings, I was exhausted and my mind didn’t want to cooperate.

Advice we, me included, give new writers struggling to find time to write is to get up a little earlier or go to bed a little later, but what if you’re already at your breaking point? Should you write or should you sleep? And do you have to choose?

I always choose writing over sleeping, I have to be honest. But is that a good idea?

Lack of Sleep Means More Health Issues

Experts tell us that lack of sleep causes many health issues. When we sleep, our body heals itself and restores chemical balance. One of the things your brain does during sleep is create pathways between neurons in the brain. As writers who need to be creative, having well firing brain cells that connect to each other seems important, doesn’t it? It means we will be more effective and write better if our mind is clear and working at optimal levels.

If you’ve found yourself unable to concentrate or lacking the motivation to start writing after a tiring day, sleep depravation could be the cause.