Member-only story
I’ve Become a Stress Sleeper, and I Don’t Like It
This has been a bad habit brewing.
Today was my first day of work at a new job — and that meant a 7 AM wake-up to get ready for a remote meeting to start off my day. As someone whose retail shifts swerved back and forth, I have to admit it’s practically an anomaly to have set hours that don’t fluctuate for this job.
After my meeting was over, I headed out to pick up a work laptop and stayed at the job site till my shift was over. I got home about 2 PM, and I was mentally exhausted from everything I had to take in — from new protocols to new procedures to new people. And that’s with not even having done anything in my job description yet!
When I got home, I just crashed. After checking and responding to texts, I got into my pajamas and laid down — just for an hour, I told myself.
Then I woke up at 7 PM and realized I had blown what I had hoped would be my prime writing time. After all, this new job is not full-time, so I actually have more free time — with potential commute and everything (also taking into account I have no graduate studies this season) — than I did with my last part-time job.
What I don’t want to do is court a schedule where I feel so burned out after every shift that I need to “rest my eyes” — and then wake up hours…
