The notion of biorhythms has been discredited, but since there are naturally high points and low points in one’s emotional, physical, and intellectual life. It is natural to interpolate the idea of a cycle. Don’t want to gripe, but at the moment I think I’m at some sort of triple dip. I feel exhausted from teaching and administration, even though it seems to be going well. As a consequence, my outlook on research is quite negative, even though there is a lot of scope for new work. Physically I’m doing well, but my flat is in shambles with a lot of housework working its way onto the to-do list, but few items falling off the top (or the bottom, for that matter).
Emotionally I’m also not too bad, but I spent the weekend re-watching the first five seasons of “House” in between working on this and that. Not the best idea in the world; I find that I’m strongly influenced by what I read, watch, and listen to. I like the ideas presented in House, and how the writers use ordinary stories to explore themes. I wish I could do the same in my writing, but it takes a little more dedication than I can muster.
I suppose one way to fix my mood is to queue up the right kind of movies & music & books. But the best way to address my problems is probably just to get a decent night’s sleep. I hate harping on this issue, but I really haven’t had a good night’s sleep since before term started. I wonder if it is possible to finish all my work during the week and just to relax during the weekend? My current strategy is to work late, sleep little, nap in the afternoon, and stretch out my work right through the week and the weekend. Perhaps it is time to change tactics a little.
I am sorry to hear that you are feeling “down”. I cannot tell you what could help. All I can say, vis-a-vis sleep, is that when I don’t get enough sleep or if my sleeping patterns are disturbed in any way, I become totally useless. Sure, I can push the limits for, say, a week. But after that, I am a wreck. You are probably more used to irregular sleep, but still, I find it hard to believe that that is not at least one major factor in your problems.
As to the remedy, sadly I can offer only breadcrumbs. My family has a schedule which I follow meticulously, and that keeps me on track. Now that I came to Oxford on my own, I notice that my schedule is starting to break up, so I took action: I put the alarm on for 6am and went jogging this morning. I also inted to be in bed by 10-11pm every night. I don’t know if you could program yourself this way; my blessing is the ability to get to sleep whenever I lay down. It is a skill I learned in the army, I read about this technique then. I have already forgotten how one learns it; to me it is already automatic.
Cheers,
-H.