Have you lost your joy? Day 8

Sleep gets strange and scrolling grows teeth. Joy’s absence canshow up at 11:30 PM. A woman who once slept steady now doom-scrolls in blue light, bargaining with tomorrow’s energy.Or she wakes too early and lies there cataloging worries like beads on a string. The next day, she’s ragged and more liekly to cancel those small plans. I’ve dont this dance myself.

What helped was a ‘soft landing’: a lamp instead of overhead lights, a book of short essays, herbal tea in a mug that feels like a handhold, screens out of the bedroom, and the rule that the news doesn’t get to follow me to bed. I also keep a sracp notebook on my nightstand-worries look smaller when they’re pinned to paper.

If this is you: make one change to your last hour of the day that favors rest over rumination. Joy visists rested houses first.