The last eleven months of the pandemic have played havoc with my sleep. It’s typical for me to wake up at some point during the night and then roll over and go back to sleep. In pandemic times, there are times I wake up wired, and just know I won’t be falling back to sleep. Here are some things I do when I can’t sleep:

1. Clean up the kitchen because invariably there’s something I didn’t clean up from the day before. Alternatively, it may also mean sorting through cabinets or my pantry There’s always plenty of work to do late at night in my kitchen.
2. Cut up  Amazon boxes because way too many things come to my house in them. I currently recommend the Gerber EAB Pocket Knife for this task. I find running a sharp blade through cardboard at 3 AM in the morning to be rather cathartic.
3. Take more melatonin.
4. Sitting down and doing some’ work for the day job is becoming another favorite late-night activity. I’m thankful that sitting at the keyboard does distract me from the COVID stress that hits me from time to time.
5. Watch HGTV or the Food Network because I found late-night TV to no longer be funny even before the pandemic.
6. Take even more melatonin.
7. Stick my head out the door to get some fresh air, lock my door, and then head back upstairs and try to sleep.
8. Work on a personal writing project that might be lingering around because I’ve been busy with work-related projects.
9. Reshuffle tasks around in Todoist because when I can’t sleep well my task lists take on a renewed importance the next day because I’m so tired.
10. Some combination of 1-9 on this list because I’m still seeking the magical combination to get back to sleep.

I wish I could say I had a cure for sleepless nights during the pandemic. I don’t have a clue. I remain hopeful that with time all this shall pass.