Okay, if I’m being honest I CAN blog in bed (and I’m pretty sure I even have). I mean, right now I’m sitting on the couch with my laptop on my lap – sitting on the bed isn’t much different. But that’s actually not what I meant when I came up with the idea (and title) for this post. What I mean is that I wish I could transfer all of those thoughts that go through my head at bedtime onto the page.
Let me explain. I’m often quite the insomniac. I almost never fall asleep in less than a half hour, and I often lay there for an hour or more. And it seems that it’s during this time that I come up with some of my best ideas. I’m laying there, trying to fall asleep, trying to clear my mind so that I can fall asleep, but I invariably fail. Instead I find myself writing blog posts in my head. The words for reviews flow effortlessly through my mind while I’m lying there in that twilight between waking and sleeping. I come up with endless ideas for discussion posts (this one included!). My brain seems to want to work overtime at exactly the time that it should be shutting down. Oh, how I wish someone would invent a mind-reading device so that I could effortlessly transfer it all to paper! (But, alas, if science fiction has taught me anything it’s that such a device would be put to shameful use.)
Now, I have on occasion gotten up to try to write down my rambling nighttime thoughts, but I’ve found two things – first, while I’m awake enough to compose in my head, I’m sometimes too tired to actually coherently put it on paper (or, um, on computer). And second, if I get out of bed and go downstairs (since I can’t actually blog in bed in the middle of the night – my husband would NOT appreciate it!), then I’m sure to add at least another sleepless hour to my night. It’s usually not worth it. Because I really want to sleep!!
Instead I have to be content with occasionally grabbing my phone and sending myself an email with a few notes. Otherwise those great discussion ideas will be lost by the next morning!
So, I guess I need someone out there to invent a mind-reading device for me – I promise not to let it fall into the wrong hands.
How about you? Do you lay in bed and compose blog posts like I do or are you one of those lucky people who falls asleep within minutes of lying down? Or is there some other time that you’re teeming with ideas, but you can’t get them written down? I want to know!
I very rarely blog in bed, the rare exception is when I hurt my back, and can’t stand to sit down for any period of time. I’m one of those people who falls asleep very easily (please don’t hate me!); I’ve never had a problem catching z’s, if anything I wish I was more of an insomniac because then I’d get more reading done. When my eyes start to droop, I always choose sleep over reading.
I’m so jealous! I can never fall asleep that quickly. Though it is good for nighttime reading – I often read till all hours of the night and have to FORCE myself to put the book down and actually get some sleep!
This just happened to me last night! I had all these amazing ideas, and wrote out a whole post in my head. I thought to myself “ok self, remember this for tomorrow.” Of course, I woke up this morning knowing I had a good idea but forgetting what it was!
Exactly! It’s just not fair!
I’m the same I’m an awful sleeper. I do find though that thinking about blog posts is pretty relaxing and is better than stewing over problems that always seem huge in the middle of the night.
Trying to remember those nighttime inspirations is next to impossible. So stick me down for one of those machines too please 🙂
I’ll be sure to let you know if someone tells me they’ve invented one. 🙂 I suppose you’re right that it’s better to think out blog posts than dwell on our problems!!
Does your phone have voice recording? I’m the same way but I found that if I try to write something I’ll forget the awesome way I had it worded so I just speak it and it takes less time.
That’s a good idea, but my husband might object – he falls asleep much quicker than I do, and he doesn’t like me to wake him up at all hours! 🙂
I don’t always fall asleep quikcly, but I usually don’t lie awake for too long. I sometimes come up with good ideas before falling asleep, but luckily my memory is usually good enough to remember the ideas next morning. I most often come up with good ideas when showering actually, not too handy either, but then I usually can write them down afterwards.
Maybe you can put a notepad next to your bed, so you can write down your thoughts? It’s not ideal, but it may help. A device that could put those thoughts down on paper would be awesome, but I don’t think such a thing would be made soon. I do remember once reading about a program that could put your speech into words on a screen, but then you would still need a computer and actually talk out loud, I don’t think your husband would like that either.
Yeah, speech recognition wouldn’t help me in the middle of the night, but it’s still pretty neat. And, yes – the shower is another time that I find myself composing in my head!
I do the exact same thing. It’s not always thinking about blogs, sometimes it’s work. But I have long been drafting quick e-mails to myself with some jotted down ideas that I hope will inspire me to remember what the hell I was thinking when I look the next day. Sometimes I resort to “Honey, remind me in the morning that I want to…” but unfortunately my boyfriend gets to sleep WAY more quickly than me …
Yes, my husband’s one of those people who falls asleep right away, so he’s no good for helping me to remember! 🙂
Oh my gods! I am the same way! I’m like very comfortable in my bed, in between being awake and asleep, when I get this awesome idea! It just keeps developing in my head but I’m too comfortable to get up and write it down. By the morning the idea is already gone 🙁 LOL. And yeah, I admire people who can fall asleep right when their head hits the pillow! I can never fall asleep before at least 30 minutes *sigh*
Yes, that’s exactly it! I will craft a complete blog post in my head, but I really don’t want to get up to write it down!
Since school started back up I crash at around 10pm and then I’m back up at 5am. So when my head hits the pillow I’m out cold! I get a lot of my blogging ideas while I walk/run, so I have a notebook always out on my desk-when I get back in I write down a few notes and then I’ll formulate them during my designated blogging times (5am-6am now 🙂 ).
Wow! I’m impressed that you are so organized. I couldn’t drag myself out of bed to blog from 5-6 AM if my life depended on it. If that was the only time I had to blog, FYFA would be very empty indeed!
Blogging is keeping me sane right now, so it’s worth getting up early lol.
Well, that is exactly what I am going through every night. Every single night. I have all these ideas about blogging, and what im going to cook and what I will eat and how, I even come up with DIY projects. Its just crazy.
What I did, instead of bloging in bed like I do now ( i always blog in bed but not while I try to sleep) I have a notebook on my nightstand and a pen. Yup, I write everything down or mostly keywords in order not to forget. So, Im lying in bed with my hand extended out to my nightstand taking notes on the things my brain comes up with.
Yes, writing down the ideas is definitely helpful, but I still wish I could automatically transfer all those thoughts to paper! 🙂
I also have a few moments of brilliance during that pre-sleep bedtime. When I know sleep is elusive, I just go out and work on something on the blog. My other good “light bulb” moments are on the drive to or from work. Since we moved, and my drive is less than half of what it used to be, I don’t have as much time for driving light bulb moments for the blog.
Yes, driving is also great thinking time! I’m usually with the kids when I drive nowadays, though, so I don’t get much thinking done. 🙂
I too am an insomniac, and I do write in my head before I fall asleep, but I write stories in my head. Luckily I am a writer so I often come up with great idea before sleep.
Yes, sometimes I write parts of books in my head too – Again, if I could just get them auto-transferred to paper. I’d have a full book by now! 🙂
Every now and again, I will come up with some blog post idea while I am in bed. I will write it in a not on my phone and then I will go read it in the morning and it will be incomprehensible!
Other times I will just get up and write the post in the middle of the night and I will edit it in the morning! It is very rare that this happens to me though! I bet it is a royal pain!
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Alex @ The Shelf Diaries
I wish it was a rare occurrence for me, but it’s almost every night. Wish I didn’t take so darn long to get to sleep!
I know exactly what you mean! Whether it’s when I’m lying in bed, or in another circumstance when I can’t write down my thoughts — those are the times I swear I have the best ideas of what to say for a review or discussion. But, then when I sit down in front of my computer and try to remember those thoughts I had…nope, they just won’t come! Or, at least, they won’t sound as good as they did when I first thought them, ya know? It’s so frustrating!
Exactly! You’re like – Darn it all, I had so many good things that I wanted to say, why can’t I think of any of them now?!
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I actually have a few notebooks by my head just for that reason.
Even if I’m tossing and turning, the last thing I want to do is get up and type away on my computer because that will just make me more alert. So, I do have a few notebooks nearby just in case I have a gem of an idea, and I’ll jot it down. Sometimes I’ll write a rough draft of a blog post in the notebook as well. If I’m really struggling though, I will turn on the lights and read. I love reading, obviously, but if I’m laying down at night and reading, that usually makes my eyes droop.
Unfortunately reading doesn’t usually put me to sleep. In fact, I have to force myself to stop reading if I want to get any sleep!
[…] Let’s Discuss – Why I Wish I Could Blog in Bed […]
Haha omg, I’m so glad I’m not the only one who has this problem! I’m constantly coming up with awesome discussion ideas/funny posts/whatever just as I’m laying in bed but I know that if I get up then I’ll never get to sleep at a decent time, but then of course forget/lose motivation/excitement by morning D: (sorry about all the slashes, apparently I’m in a slash mood? haha). I generally just don’t even bother writing down the idea since I generally am no longer excited or inspired by morning. I just hope that the spark will come back when I can actually write it down ;-).
Yes, that’s another issue I’m totally afflicted with – I come up with an idea that I’m SO excited about and write an entire post in my head some time when I can’t write it down. And then by the time I can get to it, I’m just not that excited anymore. Sigh…
[…] In fact, while I was writing this post in my head (in the shower – for more on that read my Why I Wish I Could Blog in Bed post!) and thinking about how I don’t really believe in most of this stuff, my phone […]
Now THIS is a real and serious problem that someone should fix. It’s so annoying that my brain suddenly decides to become so active while I’m trying to fall asleep. So I sometimes write draft messages on my not-smartphone Nokia, where the amount of text is quite limited and writing ain’t easy with all the double and triple number pushing. For reasons unknown, it seems that creativity/muse/inspiration comes to people who are trying to sleep/are half asleep. Please, someone, explain this and fix it 😀
I, too, have wished for a way to get my thoughts magically jotted down without getting out of bed and all. I’ve wished it so many times, eeh.
Yes, I seriously need someone to invent a mind reading machine! Siri can only do so much. LOL!