Sleep cures all

How much sleep is too much sleep? And is too much sleep bad for you?

I sleep a lot. I mean, like, A LOT. Sleep seems to be my answer to everything. I’m tired, I sleep. I’m bored, I sleep. I’m ill, I sleep. I’m stressed, I sleep. I’m sat still for more than half an hour, I sleep.

Last year some time, on an incredibly rare Saturday when we had nothing in the diary, we decided to have a lie in, so we didn’t set an alarm. We’d gone to bed about midnight the previous day, and presumably, I’d already had a nap on the sofa before bedtime. So, we woke up around 8am I guess. Really late for us, even on a weekend. I got up, had a shower and got dressed. I sat on the sofa waiting for C to get showered and dressed and had a nap. We wandered in to town a bit later in the morning and when we got back I had another nap. He woke me up for lunch after which I had another nap. He then woke me up for dinner, after which I settled for another nap, before being woken up in time to go to bed… and sleep through until the 7am Sunday alarm.

I’m generally ok of I keep going. If I have an evening meeting, or a #bellringing session, I’m ok and can stay awake, and then I’m usually still buzzing afterwards and that means I can stay awake until midnight or beyond. The moment I stop and sit down is when I could fall asleep fairly instantly.

I have also been known to fall asleep in the cinema. One time I was with a friend watching one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films and I’d said that there was this really clever bit where they walk on the sea bed in and out of the moonlight, and keep changing from humans to skeletons, but then managed to sleep through that very part of the film.

Apparently our metabolic system doesn’t like it if we sleep to much. Sleepfoundation.org suggests that between 7 and 9 hours sleep is ideal for most adults, with some needing around 10 hours kip. Their study suggested that sleeping more than the suggested amount could lead to increased risk of obesity, heart disease, back pain and headaches. An NHS review of this study did find that as a cross sectional study, it could not draw a direct cause and effect relationship between sleep and disease risk, as it could be that the symptoms of heart disease were causing people to sleep more rather than the other way around. They said that the study also didn’t take into account other factors that could have influenced the results such as chronic disease risk, lifestyle choices e.g. smoking and drinking habits. It summarised that having the occasional long snooze is not something to lose sleep over.

I wouldn’t say that I suffer from excessive sleepiness itself, but the act of sleeping seems to cure everything. I’m not necessarily tired but I can’t be hungry, anxious or bored if I’m asleep. 💤

Keeping us guessing

As you know I subscribe to BakedIn Baking Club. Each month I get an email telling me fresh ingredients to buy ready for the box with the dry ingredients and recipe card to come through the post. But you’re never told what the recipe actually is. This was the email that arrived this week ahead of distribution. Then there’s a frenzy of comments on social media about what it could be.

This one really has me stumped though. Eggs, cream, milk, butter, oil. The dry ingredients always seem to contain a flour mix of some kind and some nut or other. Google is generally not much help.

I’m hoping that the box will arrive by Saturday. I really missed out on baking last weekend, partly because I was quite busy, and partly because C had purchased 2 boxes of mince pies, so I thought we had enough snacks in (not that they lasted very long). I fully intend to bake something this weekend. I need the distraction after a difficult week at the office.

If the box doesn’t arrive in time I’ll have to think about what to bake. I’m torn between biscuits, cranberry & orange biscotti, cinnamon buns, chocolate brownie or biscoff cuppies.

I found an online quiz called What Should I Bake? After asking some obscure, and some unconnected questions, the results suggested that I should bake cookies. The chart however suggested my responses showed 40% cake, 20% cupcakes 20% pie, 14% muffins, 4% bread and 2% cookies.

I’m hoping the box arrives so I don’t have to make a decision.

This week can do one

The feeling you have after a week’s annual leave, supposedly of having rested and regathered, hasn’t lasted long on my return this week.  For some reason its been a real challenge, more so than usual.

So many of my team are either on annual leave or off sick, or off because someone in their household has symptoms so they need to isolate.  Of course the knock on effect for those left in the office has been really difficult.  The volume of work doesn’t decrease, and the type of role we have means that you can’t just leave it until the next day. Stresses and strains were really showing.

I have emailed all our services users to explain our predicament to give them the heads up that our service might not be up to standard. It has prompted a few to offer support where they can, albeit very limited, for which we are incredibly grateful. Of course there are others who are adding more pressure by phoning through monotonously, demanding that theirs is more important than anyone else’s. Well, no its not. Its all as important as each others because it involves patients, and one patient is no more or less important than the next.

In order to support my team as best I can I will come in on my day off to deflect some of the grief they’re getting, and I have also bought them all a prepaid coffee voucher as a thank you for their hard work. Neither of these things goes anywhere near to making up what they’re dealing with this week, but a simple way for me to acknowledge them.

Here’s hoping next week is a bit better. This week can definitely do one.

Moral Injury

The #MSEBuddyNetwork meeting yesterday was discussing moral injury, particularly in light of dealing with the pandemic.

The group were sharing issues where they have been asked to do things, or not do, that go against the individual’s morals or that they could make things right.

As a manager of a large team I had to introduce mechanisms to try to keep the whole team safe and Covid secure. This has meant impacting on their home situations. As time has gone on, staff are getting tired and frustrated that their seems to be no end in sight.

The NHS is an incredibly resilient organisation, however the individuals within it are really struggling. People come in to work, and on the surface seem fine, but we recognise that deep down they are not. Accepting the current situation does not mean that we necessarily agree with it, but we are trying to manage it as best we can.

We also need to be careful not to project those things on to others either in the workplace or at home. Sometimes we need to accept that we can’t fix everything and that we have to accept a lower bar, but that doesn’t mean we agree with it.

You’ve got mail

One of the things I dread when I go back to work after some annual leave is the size of the email in box. I refuse to log in when I’m on leave or my day off. If I’m not at work, I’m not at work.

To some in managerial positions that might seem like sacrilege. Surely if you’re a manager you should be available all the time. Well, no. I’m available the hours to which I am contracted to and for what you pay me, and if the work you are asking me to do falls outside of that, then we need to have a serious conversation.

I have done my fair share of ridiculous hours, weekends, nights, earlies etc. Been on call, been on conference meetings, and been in for meetings on my day off and all sorts. The trouble is, the more you do it, the more it becomes expected, and the more you get in the habit of doing it, and don’t switch off.

I do make some concessions. If a meeting absolutely has to take place on my day off and its imperative that I’m there, I will of course support it if I can. But I ensure I get that time back.

I have so much else going on in life outside of work too that I can’t afford to do it. My brain would explode.

There should be nothing that either can’t be dealt with by someone else, or that can’t wait until I get back.

My role as a manager and leader is to equip my staff to be self sufficient and confident to deal with most eventualities, and I should not be a bottleneck in the way.

So, 305 emails in the inbox after 1 week off. A chunk of those are routine and can be dispatched fairly promptly. That took me down to 206 by lunchtime. Then there’s the ones that I do need to read but don’t necessarily have to do anything with or about. Then there’s the ones that do require input.

By the end of the first day back I’ve got them down to a manageable 31. And don’t forget, more were coming in throughout the day too.

Another day tomorrow and another new bunch of emails to wade through.

Remembrance Ringing

#bellringing traditions run deep. From Christmas morning, New Years Eve, weddings, funerals, but especially Remembrance Sunday.

In 2018 I was the project coordinator for the #Ringingremembers campaign, an initiative to recruit at least 1400 new bellringers to symbolically replace those that were lost during WW1, on the 100th anniversaryof the Armistice. The project was a massive success due to the community spirit in wanting a way to remember those who had died, as well as the hard work put in by the #bellringing community, who recruited and taught new ringers in the months leading up to the anniversary. So successful was the campaign that we recruited over double the original target.

Fast forward 2 years and it was a very different story this Remembrance Sunday. Due to lockdown restrictions #bellringing has been severly curtailed since March, and there hasn’t been a full return to ringing since the first lockdown yet.

Therefore #bellringing this Remembrance Sunday featured the lone tolling of one bell to mark the Nation’s tribute to the fallen. For many ringers this has been one of the most painful days of not being able to ring.

What is worrying is that all the efforts put in 2 years plus ago, might be undone, as we’re nowhere near a return yet. And when we do return, how many of our number won’t? Whether age, infirmities or loss of interest, those who can’t or who have found other things take up their time, I’m sure the number of ringers will have diminished.

The Central Council of Church Bellringers is working hard to keep things going and formulating plans for a return to ringing, but there may not be another hook for us to regain a recruitment campaign in quite the same manner.

As with most #bellringing activities the rewards are commensurate with the amount of effort put in. In the coming months and years we are going to need to put in a huge effort to reap the rewards.

Time to get the thinking caps on and start planning.

7 years thrown away

As the epic clearance of the study continues multiple boxes of our daughters secondary school exercise books have just been deposited at the recycling centre ♻️.

Every book she had written in during her 7 years at high school was kept, for who knows what reason. How long should these thing be kept? She certainly doesn’t want them and they are of no value to anyone, so why do we, as parents, feel the need to keep such stuff?

I did have a flick through some of them and it was pleasing to see some of the teachers’ comments on work that she’d done well, and interesting to see some of the comments on things she hadn’t.

There were also some art and DT things she’d made that are no use to man nor beast. I did seek permission before we embarked on this process and her response was “just get rid“. Clearly she feels no attachment.

Of course we’ve kept school reports, certificates and achievements, but keeping all of this extra stuff seems futile, so why did we do it in the first place?

Everything a child does or produces is precious and important. It was their hard work, so who am I to decide what might be important to her in the future.

I didn’t have this much trouble throwing out my own degree papers. Once it was done, it was finished with. But that was my choice. Throwing out something which technically belongs to someone else is harder.

I suppose its another acknowledgement of the fact that she doesn’t live her anymore. Not permanently any way. Her room will always be her room and she will always have that space to visit or return to if she needs it. She needed it during lockdown #1 but so far lockdown #2 looks more stable from her work perspective, and she has a good flat mate to stay with, who is unlikely to be able to return to his family home.

Just the next phase in parenting. Letting go of those innocent (🤣) years.

We did a thing

When lockdown #1 began back in March, #bellringing, like so many other things was put on hold. Fortunately, some very clever people thought up RingingRoom, an online virtual belfry that enabled groups of people, from anywhere in the world, to join together to practice.

For a while I wasn’t particularly interested in it, thinking it was a bit too techy for me to get the hang of. But as time went on, and there seemed to be no return to the usual rhythm of practice nights, meetings, quarter peals and peals, I decided to have a closer look.

From some time in May, I invited a small group of my siblings (the ones that ring), my hubby, and some friends, to a regular Thursday evening virtual #bellringing session. Each week we’d try to get the hang of ringing using a keyboard instead of a rope, and learn a different set of visual clues.

One of my siblings has always had it in her head that should could never get the hang of ringing Cambridge Surprise Minor. She had, in the dim and distant past, rung it and even scored a quarter peal of it, but it had never stuck and she rarely had the opportunity to try. I therefore made it an early mission of this group to get her to be ringing it without fuss.

We took a circuitous route, using different methods to introduce different parts of the work and build up gradually. In the meantime, she had also put out a request for anyone else to help her, during her own organised sessions, with extra practice during the daytime.

With this additional help, it wasn’t long before she’d got a plain course sorted and was trying touches. Then someone suggested going for a quarter peal attempt. There were a couple of failed attempts, either technology failures, or brain failures. She eventually changed her day time sessions to a Friday so that I could join in too on my day off.

On our Thursday evening sessions, we have moved on from Cambridge to Ipswich, Primrose and now Norwich. From someone who didn’t think she could ring Surprise Minor methods, she’s now got several under her belt.

It so happened that her hubby had the week off work and it was his birthday on Friday so the suggestion was to try for a quarter peal of Cambridge again. With some trepidation 6 of us gathered, from the comfort of our respective homes and started ringing. It was going very well. Only a few clips here and there but nothing o worry about. There was quite a hiccup quite near the end, but we all stuck with it and managed to come out of it in the right order.

After 49 minutes, a very reasonable quarter peal of Cambridge Surprise Minor was scored. As you might imagine she was really chuffed. Everyone was really pleased to have scored it, especially as a birthday compliment to her hubby too.

Another #bellringing milestone ticked.

Having a clear out

We’re having a tidy up of the study to make room for a second office desk and chair.

Over the years what was step daughter #1’s bedroom became the spare room and eventually we moved the computer out of our bedroom and into this room, therefore redesignating it as the study. However, it also became the junk room.

Over years and years, more and more stuff has been pushed in there as either being “useful one day” or “file it later”. To the point where we can’t actually get anywhere near the other end of the room, and now have no idea whats there. To be honest, a bit embarrassing.

With lockdown #2 now underway and the potential for things to change for me at work, it might be possible, or desirable, for me to work from home from time to time. It would also be more beneficial as I do more #bellringing stuff. C is on the computer quite a lot doing whatever it is he does, so if I had a desk and set up too, I could get on with things. I know that I could sit on the sofa with my laptop but that’s not conducive to a nine and a half hour working day. I need a proper chair and desk.

So, desk and chair have been ordered, although the desired chair was out of stock, so was the second preference, so ended up with third choice, which of course was more expensive, but they’re giving it to us at the same price as the first choice, for the inconvenience.

Had a phone call at 07:30 (!) Thursday morning saying that desk will arrive tomorrow. Eek, better start making room for it then.

Why does tidying up always create more mess? C is making a start as the first hurdles are his. Most of my stuff is at the back of the room, so he’s got to make some headway before I can do much. This is going to take some time. He seems to be checking everything and reading things, and deciding that “that would be useful to hang on to” despite the fact that’s its clearly not been used in many, many years.

There are now bin bags, recycling bags and piles of other stuff accumulating in the lounge, ready for the next phase. This is going to take a while.

Strolling, strolling, strolling

Something I try to do every day is go out for a walk. Sometimes it might just be walking into town, during a working week its around the hospital grounds at lunchtime, and sometimes its a bit more of a planned event, like Tuesday’s epic Thames Path.

On Monday afternoon I took myself for a walk around the block whilst C was waiting for a parcel to be collected. I simply wandered up the main road to the local park, around the edge of the park and back down the back streets. Not very far, but enough.

Wednesday C needed to pick up a prescription so we walked to the GP surgery, about a mile, then can back via the old Cinder Track, a footpath that links the estate where my parents live to the city centre. This path I have trod many times in my childhood.

It seems that a lot has changed along that path since I last went that way. The actual path is the same 2 lane affair. Pedestrians to the left, cyclist’s the right, as you head into the city. But what was once just old scrubland has been turned into a pleasant little tree covered pathway, with children’s play things and benches, and notices telling you about the wildlife that frequents the area.

For all that new scenery there was a sense of the familiar. I’ve walked, run and cycled along that path and back so many times. Its nice to see the scrubland repurchased, but its nice to have the familiar crunch of the path underfoot.

Things change and they can change rapidly and sometimes unexpectedly. Its inevitable that things will progress and move on. Things will never stay the same forever.

As human beings we need to be adaptable and resilient in the face of change. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. I try my best to adapt to new things, like virtual #bellringing rather than the real thing and I try even harder to be resilient. Sometimes going for a walk to clear my thoughts helps with that.