Lesson 19

My alarm clock goes off at 2.45am every week day morning. Now matter how many years you do it or how early you go to bed your body never ever gets used to it. When I tell people what I do for a living they always ask me about the early starts and always ask what time I go to bed.

There has never been a morning when I have jumped out of bed with joy and there hasn't been a morning when I haven't been tempted to switch the alarm clock off and go back to sleep despite the consequences!

Anyone who works long hours or does shift work will know you suffer from two ailments in particular. Firstly grumpiness through lack of sleep and secondly the obsession with having enough sleep. I also nap anywhere I can, on the tube, in the car (obviously not when I'm driving!) on the bus, just about anywhere I can.

When I do go to sleep, I often wake up in the night and count how many hours of sleep I have before having to get up and if I'm in bed any later than 8pm I start to panic.

Sleep is so important, it's true things seem better after a good nights sleep. I haven't had one for a while but I am learning to sleep with less on my mind, I'm not having as many anxiety dreams and I'm waking up less, I have in the past woke up nearly every hour with worry.

Lesson 19 is continuing the theme of not being alone in experiencing thoughts. The lesson tells me how minds are joined. It even warns that some people may regard this concept as a 'invasion as privacy', which I don't really get. I am struggling to understand today's lesson, does it mean that my thoughts on a subject can influence an other or is it that we often have the same view as in the same perception of events. I am not worried that I am not understanding fully what I am doing, which underlines the fact I am becoming more laid back.

Tomorrow's lesson claims the previous lessons have been casual and more structure is to be added, therefore I'm sure there will be more confusion in the morning!