Why Don't I Go to Bed?

It's just after 10 PM. I know that because my computer helpfully pops up a window at 10 o'clock every night. It tells me to go to bed.

I'm sitting in the living room, wondering why I haven't gone to bed. At 9:07 tonight, I looked at the clock and thought that I could get some extra sleep tonight. The intelligent, forward-looking parts of my brain enjoyed that idea.

I haven't done anything important or productive in the past hour. But I haven't made any progress toward getting to bed.

The reason my computer helpfully pops up a window reminding me to go to bed is that I've been having trouble getting motivated to get to bed. That problem started about a month ago.

The window pops up at 10 o'clock is because that's an hour after 9 o'clock. Nine is when I want to start heading to bed. That gives me eight hours of sleep and lets me get up well before six.

There's a concept in chemistry called "activation energy". Sometimes energy needs to be added to reagents before a reaction will occur. Even reactions that produce more energy than they consume might need energy added so they can start. If you live in a wooden home, you should feel happy about that. Heat, say from a lighter or a burning bit of paper, is the activation energy added to wood and oxygen to start the burning-wood reaction. Stop me if I'm getting too technical.

I don't know why I seem to need so much activation energy to get up and brush my teeth. I've run up a pretty steep sleep deficit lately. That might be part of the reason. But with a baby due any day now, I should figure out how to put myself to bed.

That way I'll have the energy to take care of my wife and our baby. And that thought is way more energizing than sitting around not going to bed.