How do you do Morning Pages when you have narcolepsy and take a while to fully wake up?
How do you approach Morning Pages when you take a while to fully wake up?
Hi everyone! I’m just starting my 4th week of The Artist’s Way, and I’ve been thinking about what Morning Pages actually look like for me.
I’ve been doing a kind of morning journaling for about four years already, so I was already used to writing in the morning. The difference is that my old journaling didn’t really have a particular intention, and there was no page limit.
I also have narcolepsy, so it takes me a while to fully wake up in the morning. For about the first 30 minutes after getting up (which is when I take my medication), I’m basically a zombie. 😅 Sometimes all I can do is open my notebook and start writing.
And what I write during that time is… incredibly mundane.
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A good half-page can be like this.
But I think it actually helps me wake up. It feels like my hand starts moving before my brain is fully online. I put these vague thoughts about what I need to do into words, and then somehow my body starts following along. I drink the water, wash my face, take my medication, etc. As I move around, I gradually become more awake.
After about an hour and a half, I’m usually alert enough that my writing becomes more substantial. If I have a lot on my mind, I sometimes end up writing 4–6 pages.
Lately, though, I’ve started using the time to set up my work environment as well. If I become alert enough, I just start working. If I’m still sleepy, I continue writing while I wake up.
The result is that my Morning Pages have become longer, and sometimes they start turning into detailed notes about whatever I’m working on. When I read them back, they don’t really feel like the kind of “Morning Pages” I imagined they were supposed to be.
But at the same time, I wonder if I’m overthinking it. Maybe this is simply what Morning Pages look like for me right now.
I’m curious how other people approach this. Do your Morning Pages ever become very mundane, repetitive, or mixed in with practical thoughts about your day? And if you take a while to fully wake up in the morning, do you have any particular way of handling your pages?
P.S. I wrote this in my native language and used AI to translate it. Hope that's okay! Otherwise, I can post the original and let your browser translate it.