Some time ago I read part of an article that said you can’t trust any thoughts you have between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.; I apparently didn’t retain what the reason was for this, but I think it was something about your brain being in the wrong mode for rational thought.
I find that information is sometimes helpful and sometimes not. Sometimes if I am awake at 2:30 in the morning and my brain wants to do a circuit loop of How We’d Escape in a Fire, or What If One of the Children is a Sociopath, I can say to my brain firmly: “No no, now, it is 2:30 in the morning and we know very well that we don’t have rational conversations at that time of the night, so let’s just go to sleep and not think about that right this minute,” and sometimes I do indeed then stop thinking about it and go to sleep.
Other times, like last night and this morning, it doesn’t work: first I lay awake late with stressy thoughts; then I woke up early with stressy thoughts. I doubt you will be surprised to hear that they were primarily house/move-related. So many of the things I’m stressed about will get worked out naturally and in good time, but there I was at 4:30 in the morning wondering where we were going to put the seldom-used bathroom items now that we wouldn’t have a closet in the bathroom. My god. Who cares. We will find a place at a time when we are not supposed to be SLEEPING.
On another topic, I would like to recommend a wig:
(image from Amazon.com)
Elizabeth and I were invited to a Halloween party, and I didn’t really want to buy a costume for it, but I knew from previous years that all the other adults would be wearing not just costumes but FULL-ON costumes, so I wanted to do SOMETHING. And since “jaw-length cotton-candy-pink with bangs” is one of my restless mid-life ideas for my own actual hair, this seemed like a low-pressure way to try out that look. It cost $16 and the reviews were not only good but SURPRISED-good, like “I didn’t think this could be any good for $16, but now it’s one of my best/favorite wigs” and so on. Also, lots of reviewers posted photos of themselves in the wigs—unfortunately not in the pink one, but in other colors, and that was useful for getting an idea of what it looked like in real life.
It was a little itchy and warm as I understand most wigs are, but I too was surprised by how good it was. It took some study to figure out how to put it on the first time, but then it wasn’t hard. I startled Paul very severely by just strolling into the kitchen wearing it. He said it looked exactly as if I’d had my hair cut and dyed, and he just couldn’t figure out how I’d done so in the twenty minutes since he’d last seen me. Then he couldn’t figure out how I’d gotten all of my hair under it: I have below-the-shoulders, fairly thick hair. (It gets tucked under the wig at the top of the neck, which gives the back of the wig more apparent volume.)
I wore it to the party and it was fine for the whole several-hours of driving and being there. I was glad to take it off at the end of the evening, but I didn’t suffer while it was on. I am now considering buying it in blue, violet, and/or dark brown. I am also considering various colors as holiday/birthday gifts for other people: I have several people on my list I like to give fun/unusual gifts to. I am no longer considering dyeing my own actual hair pink: it was nice to be able to go back to normal, and I felt as if the pink would have looked better with more make-up than I like to wear.
I am impressed that you can talk yourself out of those middle of the night thoughts. For me, they are so urgent I cannot get them to still. Even though they are usually stupid. Maybe now that I have this soothing speech you use…
There is supposed to be an EVER in there, sigh. That you can EVER talk yourself out of these thoughts.
This disturbs me greatly. I’m very much a night owl and, being self-employed and worrking mainly from home, I often work best between those exact hours… I don’t really know what that says about me or the quality of my work, but clients are generally happy so I guess it must be OK…
Do you have similar/equivalent times in your own normal sleep schedule when you would normally be sleeping, but instead you sometimes lie awake fretting/panicking about things that don’t seem nearly as big a deal in your normal waking hours? If so, then my guess is that “11:00-5:00” is meant to represent the typical sleep schedule, and not anything that would apply to every single person including people working second shift or whatever.
I am also a night owl. My prime working hours are between 10 pm and midnight. My bedtime is between 2-3 am and I get up between 10-11 am. However, if I wake up when my husband gets up at 6 am to go to work, my brain happily decides to get on its hampster wheel and trot out ALL the things it thinks I need to stay awake and fret about. If I’m unable to shut those shenanigans down, I’m unable to get back to sleep until 7:30-8 am and then I am wrecked for the rest of the day. It is maddening!
Million dollar idea for someone with the ways and means: A miniature tranq dart that can be administered through the ear for treatment of Hampster Brain. I would SO be on board with this! :)
I’m sure I speak for several readers when I ask, in my most hopeful voice: “will you post a photo of your head bewigged?”
Added!
<3 <3 <3
Your smiley pink-wigged face made me smile!
Wow, so cool! Thanks for the inspiration!
I love it! You look like you’re having so much fun. Now I want a bunch of wigs.
I cackled when I read “What If One of the Children is a Sociopath.” That’s such a middle of the night thought. And, I may or may not have had that thought during daylight hours. I love the pink wig-can’t wait to see the other colors! What a fun way to try a different hairstyle and color.
I, too, get obsessive in the middle of the night. Someone told me once that executive function is totally crap at 3 in the morning. That’s decision making, right? (Googling…yeah, all the different skills in making plans and motivating oneself). Sometimes I get up and write down the ridiculous thoughts and then read something happy before getting sleepy again. The other day, I was worried I hadn’t bought the tickets to a play we were seeing with our in-laws, so I figured out the online login to the theater, and there they were. Then I was wide awake because blue screen light.
But I agree, if your creative or work schedule is routinely late at night and then you sleep from, say, 2 AM to 9 AM, then the period would be later, like 6 AM or whatever.
Oh, and you look so smiley and happy in the wig! Brings back all those Alias episodes from the early 00’s. Fun!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_Lola_Run Also, this movie. Geez, I guess I have a thing with pink/red/orange hair. Don’t get me started singing “Beauty School Dropout” from Grease. :)
You look so cute! The wig looks great actually. Like, other than the color, not immediately identifiable as a wig. I have a couple wigs for costumes and they are very clearly wigs from any distance and I’ll bet I paid more than $16.
God. The sociopath question. Or “am I inadvertently helping my children to become terrible, terrible people.” Go to sleep brain.
Well, you’ve sold me a wig. You look crazy cute in it! Like, woah. . .Have you ever cut your hair short like that before?
Right now my hair is only about 2 inches long and I’m thinking of never growing it out because the mid length like that wig looks awful with my hair texture- so floofy.
I have! I used to wear it like that a lot, with bangs and everything—but my hair is kind of not-quite-wavy-but-not-quite-straight and my bangs have a couple of cowlicks in them, so not as nice as this wig!
Well. I don’t need a pink wig and yet now I suddenly want one. And I am so glad you posted a picture. It is very cute, as are you.
Oh so fun! I never ‘needed’ a wig, but now I think I might!
I first saw this post very early this morning and was coming back to request a photo of you wearing it. I am exceedingly pleased I waited. It is so cute and I love it! I love the cat butt and the enormous giraffe!
Yes I’m so glad to see the giraffe, it makes me happy :) And the wig looks great!
Oh my gosh! You look fantastic in that wig! I legit gasped and grinned when I saw your photo. And like Natalie, I am so charmed by the cat butt and the giant giraffe.
Also, I am a lifelong 3-4am Spiral of Anxiety sufferer. It is the PITS. I know some Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques that are meant to combat it, but as you say, the brain is not capable of rational thought at that time so they do not work particularly well. The Spiral-Brain is VERY VERY strong in my case and overrides the calming, sensible thoughts. It is as though my brain scans everything that I am currently working on and everything that has ever happened to me, looking for something to awake me from sleep and plague me with terrible thoughts for as long as it can. It could be something I think I’ve made a mistake on at work, or it could be an awkward moment I caused 30 years ago. It’s like a very un-fun, nightly Wheel of Fortune. (What if One of the Children is a Sociopath is a very funny one, though I know it isn’t at 4am). Whyyyyyyyy.
Swistle, I don’t normally comment on people’s appearance, but I’ve been reading this blog for like 8 years and I feel like you’re and old friend! And woman, you look GOOD! That hair colour/length really, really suits you – you should definitely do it!!!!!! Or something similar? Like the same style and just a lighter but natural colour? You just look so healthy and young. You really are giving me hope that when my babies aren’t babies any more and I don’t have eye bags down to my chin, maybe I can look young and cool again too!!!
I LOVE it!! And you know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen you before – nice to “meet” you!
That wig/hairstyle is so cute on you!
First off-you look adorable in that wig! I am intrigued by wigs, my mom loved them and wore them all the time in the 1970’s-why I’m not sure, because she had really nice hair. I let my hair go its natural gray years ago, it would be fun to get the dark brown wig (the hair color I was born with) and see how it feels to have dark hair again.
I like that I’m not the only person who’s discovered that certain hairstyles/colors require different makeup. I had a pixie cut for about six months before I gave up and started growing it out, and it wasn’t until I started studying famous people with pixie cuts that I realized what makes them work (at least for certain types of faces/coloring) is good eye makeup. Like, more than Mascara for Church eye makeup. I may never go back to the style (growing out was a pain), but at least if I do, I know I’ll need to commit to some kind of daytime smoky eye. And the wig/style is adorable on you, but this post also reminds me of my least favorite thing about getting a drastic haircut, which is all the people, especially the stylists themselves, coming out of the woodwork to tell me how great it looks, which makes me feel like I can never go back to how it was before. And now I am rambling, but it is three minutes to 11, I feel like my brain is already offering up the stupid thoughts.
Emerging briefly from my not-onlineness to say *dang* do you look cute in that wig.
Also adding that you look so cute in that wig! I just added it to my amazon wish list. Just in case.
You look great!
I also suffer from middle of the night thought cycles and have found this advice very helpful in the past.
A couple of months ago I woke up at 3am unable to shake a genuine concern that DRAGONS MIGHT BE REAL. I like to refer to this experience when trying to convince myself that my time would best be spent sleeping and not giving voice to my 3am anxieties. “Remember the time that you were worried that dragons were real? That’s right. Go back to sleep.”
The photo of your happy smiling face in the wig made me smile back at it. And then immediately made me click through and add one to my amazon card… I’ve always wanted a straight fabulous black bob like that and maybe I can have one for $16 occasionally instead of chemically straightening and dyeing my hair? Why have I never thought of this before? Why are you such a wonderful smiley genius?!