Day three: five hours, ten minutes

So I guess that represents some sort of progress. Better than last night, although slightly down on the first day I posted.

I feel pretty good though, which ultimately is the only thing that matters.

During the past couple of months of my ‘recovery’, my sleep time has ranged from a pathetic two hours to a respectable six. The morning after my Daily Mail piece came out, I looked at my phone and the time had moved on by seven hours.

Seven hours!

I did a little Tim Henman fist-pump, texted all my friends and even posted it on my Facebook feed. The reaction was so sweet. Lots of little ‘party’ emojis and general rejoicing, even from contacts who have never even met me.

People can be very kind.

I didn’t feel particularly alert that day, but walked round with a smug sense of achievement. Or maybe ‘non-achievement’ would be more accurate because sleeping is a ‘non’ activity. I think I’ll write more on this another time.

Anyway. Today is a busy one. I have to wrap up some loose ends on one of my magazine commissions and then retune my brain to a task for my Start Writing Fiction course (they require very different ‘head spaces’).

Then I am having lunch with Anthony, my former therapist. Anthony is a wonderful, wise and humane man in his 80s who went far, far beyond the call of duty during my illness. About four years ago, we mutually agreed to stop seeing each other because it didn’t seem to be helping. When I called him to say I was feeling better, he almost dropped his phone.

Anthony does not want to be my therapist any more. He wants to be my friend, which is utterly flattering. So we are meeting at 1pm for a pub lunch in Highgate, my old stamping ground.

After that, I need to run a few errands. Then home for another creative writing task.

I need to stay off Facebook today. The past week or so I have fallen into the rabbit hole of reading and befriending and responding to all the clever people out there, many of them writers I admire. Sadly, this has happened to the detriment of some of my writing coursework.

So, hectic day. Let’s see if it makes any difference to my sleep system tonight.