Contribute: Does Freelancing Interrupt Your Sleep Schedule?
It’s 12:39 am so you can probably guess my problem. I’ve personally been having problems sleeping at night since I started freelancing full-time.
My significant other likes to go to bed around 10 or 10:30 since he has to wake up early for work am of course I don’t want us to go to bed seperately. I like to wake around 9 am because this seems to be the optimal time for my body to wake and I’m usually pretty energized, even though I normally can’t fall asleep till 2.
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m going to bed semi-early and waking late, or the fact I’m constantly thinking about tomorrow’s client work, new blog post topics and answering emails.
Does anyone have this problem? If so, what’s been your remedy? What did you find that caused this problem?
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About the author
Amber Weinberg specializes in clean and semantic XHTML, CSS and WordPress development. She has over 10 years of coding experience and is pretty cool to work with. Amber is available for freelance work, so why not hire her for your next project?
Well one thing that will get you to sleep earlier and let you sleep better is to make a to-do list at the end of the day. Such a simple task can do so many things.
1. Lets you see what you’ve done for the day.
2. Lets you know what you’re doing tomorrow, so you don’t have to figure it out while waiting for the coffee to kick in.
3. Lets your mind be free from the thoughts of the day and relax.
I prefer to start work around 10-11am, then work to around 2-3pm. Then I’ll take a break for an hour or three for various errands or other hobbies. I’ll work another 3-8 hours at night, depending on deadlines and/or TV scheduling.
That’s a good idea, as a lot of times when I write stuff does, it does come off my mind.
I think it’s because you think too much
I also have this problem sometimes when something big is coming or when I have much to do.
Just don’t work at least one hour before you are going to bed, you have to prepare your mind to enter the sleep mode.
Then you can try many other things before bed like warm shower, nature sounds (rain, sea), even those candles that releases smell like vanilla can help..
It’s hard.. If you succeed tell me how
Yeah, I can’t shut off this big head of mine
I take a lot of warm baths but I always get an energy rush around 10 or 11 
Hmmm. I think Sleep is interrupting my freelance schedule.
I get most of my work done in the morning and late at night. Some mornings I get started early, and other days I get started close to noon.
One thing self employment has taught me is that inspiration doesn’t come with a schedule… If I can find inspiration for just a couple hours each day, I can usually accomplish more than I would working a solid 9 to 5 day.
I used to like coding late at night when I was single, now that I’m not single…I’d rather be in bed…I’d hate for him to go to bed around 10 and me not till 1-2.
For me to stop thinking about working, I make to-do lists write down thoughts etc. and that usually helps clear my head.
I try to stay as organized as possible and that helps also. Try to keep my desk clean, desktop clean etc.
I do as well, I can’t even work if my desk isn’t clear and organized. As a matter of fact I’m planning on redoing my whole office because my open organization cubes are too messy looking for me
I am actually redoing mine at the moment so it is a really big mess! I got rid of the bookshelf, office organizers etc, and new paint and flooring coming soon.
Make sure you share some pics then when you’re finished!
Keep a notepad next to your bed and use it only for things that won’t let you sleep. If you find yourself tossing and turning, write out whatever is on your mind at the time. Then lie down and close your eyes.
That seems to help a lot of people, and I find myself opening my iPhone and typing stuff down, especially blog posts. I’m try a notepad as it seems that would tire me out better and get it off my mind more if I wrote it down.
While I don’t freelance full-time yet (I still have the day-job), I’m sure it will be interesting to see how it works out. When I was supposed to be in college, and now on school breaks (I work in the school system), my system seems to go to a 30 hour cycle if I let it. If I go to bed when I start getting tired, I’ll sleep about 6 hours. After that, I’m up for about 24 hours before I get tired again.
If I get back on that type of cycle, I’m sure it will be fine. But I would like to keep from doing that because I really like going to bed with my wife. When we worked a split schedule for a while (her overnights, me days… at first we were both overnights), it was quite the headache trying to find a good time to spend together.
One thing that I have noticed is that when I try to go to bed just because I “need” to go to bed, I wake up right as I drift off with asthma problems. I’ve gotten to where if I’m just going to bed because I’ve got to be up in a couple of hours I just go ahead and hit the nebulizer. I usually find it easy to fall asleep right after that, and sleepiness/tiredness is not a side effect of that medication – I think it just helps me to breathe easier and relax.
hi,
i too find myself hard to maintain the freelance/sleep-cycle balance.
i’d want to go to sleep by 10.30pm or11pm and wake up early at 7am , but thats really hard since i start freelancing at around 9.00pm and it often goes beyond 11.59pm.
in the morning i make todo list prioritize it and in evening before sleep…if possible i chck work done accross the todo list. once i know i’m done with the most important things of the day to some degree…i can go to sleep.
i do skip this scheduling and straight away go to sleep some days….so it gives a breather….
Amber -
I definitely agree with the other people about keeping a constant to-do list. I have an app on my phone that I update when I’m not in front of the computer. I usually keep about 5 different lists at once. Everything from blog post topics to work lists to groceries.
As far as being able to fall asleep earlier, the thing that helps me the most is working out – running, dog walk, biking, swimming, weights or volleyball. If I take an afternoon break and go do one of those for an hour and then come back to work, I tend to fall asleep much quicker at night. Plus, I usually have many creative ideas and solutions while working out, so the benefits are two-fold.
That’s a good idea. I’m a huge “list” person as well
If this becomes something that starts to have a serious impact on your health and work performance, I highly recommend seeing a sleep therapist–someone who SPECIALIZES in sleep disorders. I struggled with insomnia for 8 years and, after seeing numerous (medical) doctors and even trying sleep medications, I was referred to one of these sleep therapists. I still have the occasional off night, as everyone does, but I’m otherwise really happy with the results… especially since it only required behavior modifications on my part (and no pills!). Good luck!
Wow I’m glad you were able to find some relief…my problem isn’t that bad, but I’ve found that waking up a little bit earlier and getting some exercise has helped the past few days, as well as making sure I’m not thinking about work when going to bed
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I’m only freelancing part time as have a day job at present. I find the balance tough as I have two young sons under three years old. I can be working until 1am / 2am but be woken up at 5am. Don’t have a minute to myself.