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Writers Need Sleep

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Sleep: The unspoken component of writing.

Rest is vital to brain function. But the amount of sleep a writer needs is often overlooked, unspoken of. I’m here to break the silence: The better rested I am, the more creative I become.

I objectively notice sleep deprivation hinders my work progress. When I experience Writer’s Block, lack of sleep is almost always involved. It lurks in the background, well camouflaged, blended in, I can’t distinguish. “I’m waiting for inspiration,” I would tell myself; read and read, to no avail. Only once I sleep a full 8 hours over several nights do the writing circuits in my brain spark, come alive.

Have you ever experienced Writer’s Block? If so, could sleep deprivation been the cause? I’m genuinely curious whether other writers can trace their source of Writer’s Block to sleeplessness.

 

Thanks for reading, 🙂

-Thomas J Benedict

30 thoughts on “Writers Need Sleep”

  1. It definitely seems very possible that it could be sleep related but I don’t think it’s always. I have a 7 month old daughter who usually wakes several times a night but somehow I’m still managing 🙂

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      1. You’re welcome 🙂 I think you get to a point where you kind of just get used to being tired all the time 😛 and free time is limited so you try make the most of what you get. All my writing is done during my daughter’s half hour naps and one day a week she goes to care for 4 hours

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      2. Oh damn, so you really have to make use of what little time you have or risk getting nothing done. This is mildly reminiscent of university: Getting used to being tired all the time and doing work when little slots of time opens up.

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      3. Yeah I remember those days but I wasn’t trying to write a book back then. I was pretty much full time work and full time uni though, not sure I could ever do that again 😛 at the moment I’m just a full time Mum but I don’t have any deadlines so that makes it easier 😉

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      5. No deadlines is great, but also remember, no time to do anything! lol but you do get rewarded with smiles and the cutest laugh humanly possible 😀

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  2. I’ve never had a problem with too little sleep, it’s the opposite for me, I sleep way too much. In fact, I just woke up from a nap and I’m still in bed lol! I find running helps me when I’m having trouble writing. It just frees my mind and let’s the creativity unravel. 🙂

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    1. LOL! I have a combination of insomnia on some days, and sleeping too much on others. So I fully understand where you’re coming from. Minimal exercise certainly could be a huge factor. I should seriously run (but that would require me to get up off my ass and walk to the treadmill. I too am still in bed, its 3:07PM). Thank you for feeding my curiosity!

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  3. I cant concentrate properly when I haven’t slept enough, but I have my creative peak middle of the night and stay up way past 2am, I might be tired but I get the last adrenaline rush and it is hard to fall asleep. The next day I am dead and wont have any brain activity until middle of the day, then cycle repeats. 😛

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    1. YES!!!!! I GET THAT TOO!!! I think you explained the other angle of my struggle. Being a night owl is both a curse and a blessing. Curse because we are coerced into following societal rules. If I was the king, it would be mandatory to start work at 12PM hahah!

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  4. Yes, writers need sleep! For me, at least. I’m neither a morning person nor a night all; I tend to sleep a bit too much and wake up at mid-morning, and I find I’m most productive a little after brunch. No kids yet, so I’m enjoying this routine while I can. 😛

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      1. Happy Halloween to you too! Haha, at least you know what day it was. 😛

        Hm, we know what Halloween is, but it’s not a big celebration here and kids don’t go from house to house doing trick-or-treat. There are people who hold Halloween costume parties, though sadly I’ve only been to one; it would have been fun to dress up as something every year. 😀

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  6. Great topic, Thomas, and a well-written post!

    I rarely get enough sleep, and I’m sure that doesn’t help my writing. It’s a tough trade-off — get enough sleep and be more creative or get too little sleep and at least have a couple more hours to write, albeit not at peak efficiency. I do find that taking a good walk helps spark ideas, even if I’m sleep-deprived.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words, Dave!

      You’re right, exercise or a simple walk can do wonders for sparking ideas. Sleep is a luxury that’s hard to come by all the time. Sometimes when you’re on a roll, sleep could disturb that and you wake up in a different mind state than what is optimum for writing.

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      1. VERY good point, Thomas. When the writing is going really well, sleep can sometimes halt that momentum in a way that’s hard to regain the following morning.

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  7. Personally for me, my blocks come at random and usually when my non-writing related life is too stressful or overpacked with things to do. I normally don’t sleep well because I have severe insomnia so even if all I get is my normal 4 to 6hrs of semi-restful sleep, I can still bring a good bit of creativity to the fore.

    However, editing when I’ve gotten less than my normal amount of sleep? That’s impossible. I end up making *more* mistakes editing while exhausted than I did when writing the draft. 😂

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    1. Hey! I’m sorry to hear about your insomnia 😔. I used to suffer from it too, but it’s now mostly gone now.

      I agree, actually! During the school year I’m too stressed with my classes so I just can’t get myself to write without feeling guilty. But overall, being rested makes a huge difference when it comes to efficiency.

      LOL! That’s hilarious! Surprisingly, I can usually edit regardless of my mental state, but I never paid attention to the resulting quality. Perhaps you’re on to something — my editing must suck too when I’m tired 😅😂😂

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      1. Thank you. Unfortunately my insomnia is born from several mental illnesses and one physical disability (three of the MI’s cause it as does the PD… it’s grand [sarcasm]) so I’m stuck with it. But I make it work to my advantage as often as possible. I.e., because I sleep less I have more hours awake to spend writing. 😉😂 Take that insomnia!

        For me it’s more I tend to have all the ideas but zero focus and/or motivation to make them coherent on the page.

        Yeah… I once wrote two sentences well rested that made sense, but had two or three minor typos (because I wrote them initially on the WordPress app). Edited while sleep deprived… woke up to those sentences spliced together, with five NEW typos, and NOTHING made sense. It was a Time™️ to fix it. Thank the gods aplenty that WordPress has a “history of edits” that keeps your last 25 revisions otherwise I’d have had no clue what to do about it. Lol

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      2. Aw I’m really sorry to hear about your challenges but I’m delighted that you’ve taken your problems and turned them into strengths!!

        LOL my lord! That’s hilarious! The history of edits definitely has saved me a few times! But regardless of my metal state, I always make mistakes too 😂😂, especially when I’m writing on WordPress 😂

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