When Sleep Isn't Helping

Maybe you need a different type of rest

Hello friend,

As I sit here, writing this missive to you, I have earbuds in and noise in my ears.

Not music. Sheesh.

This isn’t a rave.

And certainly not a podcast or audiobook.

I can’t write with outside words coming at me.

In fact, after years of pretending I am not a complete ogre (I definitely am sometimes at least 30 percent ogre), a couple of years ago I invested in a fancy pair of noise cancelling headphones.

(As in - a friend gave me a generous gift card and I instantly knew EXACTLY what I wanted to use it for more than anything!)

Sadly, my fancy headphones made my head sweat terribly, which is its own sensory issue, and so now I have noise cancelling earbuds and a pair of those loopy reusable earplugs that I stick in my head when my husband starts playing a podcast in another room or the dog is barking.

Sometimes, though - I put the earplugs in just because …

See, wearing them me reminds me of that feeling of floating in a pool with your ears just under water - everything feels muted and soft, and if you close your eyes, you can actually imagine that you are someplace tropical and lovely, not at the closest YMCA location, bathing with strangers.

You Seem ‘Sensitive’

Recently, I wrote a post here about rest.

It turns out that there are seven types of rest, and when I first learned that, I felt a bit like how I have felt a LOT lately - like Adam Sandler in that scene from The Wedding Singer when he shouts:

But it’s OK.

I have recently recognized that I am just a Baby Jell-O Legs Old Lady.

I am still learning all the time.

But one thing that I know with 100 percent certainty is that I am “sensitive.”

And so when I learned that one of the 7 types of rest is Sensory Rest, a tiny, pastel light went off and I heard gentle birdsongs.

Not really, but I did start to think that maybe I should think about how to add in more sensory rest.