Question of the Day | 09/28/2009 2:00 am
How do you fall asleep after a long, stressful day?
© Shutterstock
6 Comments
66 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Trouble falling asleep — never. Getting up at 5am to check the 20 e-mails from my daily correspondents who are night owls — just about always. I love the still small hours of the morning when all is dark, silent, and I am at my writing best. This is my piece of heaven and those that can write the compelling pieces are up and running amok with their prose. Treats galore … and a good night’s sleep. A winning combination every night!!! What a great start to my day!!
Same here, Joan. Heads hit the pillow, and I’m out. If the phone rings at 2 a.m., no problem. I’ll fall right back to sleep. My problem is getting up. I’m a major groggy-head for about 30 minutes.
James , , , where have you been? Missed you!!!!!! As far as sleep — give me 8 hours though … but if I have come in from an evening board meeting, I usually am so charged up that I am doing all sorts of things and stay up until 2. No complaints — but I miss wow not having the question on at midnight — I was addicted to that one. Maybe just as well …
Howdy, Joan. In fact, I just woke up. It must’ve been a long day, as I had a sudden wave of tiredness around 7:30pm, decided to lie down for "a few minutes" and woke up 6 hours later!
Yeah, I’ve been very busy at a great new news/talk station in Grand Rapids, WJRW-AM. Write/anchor news; on after 4pm: www.wjrwam.com . Some great talk-shows/segments on there. I like the 9am-12pm ET "Tony Gates Show" quite a bit.
Right, the midnight question was good. Take care!
James - as far as your writing goes — is it in preparation for up to the minute news or interesting news pieces?? You sound like you are where the action is — and your speaking voice must be great if you up before a microphone. Call-ins??? Co-host or not?
Hi, Joan. Have been frenetically busy. I gather news, both written and audio, from telephone and street interviews I do. Plus, I use ABC and MetroSource sound clips/reports/actualities/voicers. Sometimes I report live from the field in the morning. The rest of the day, I’m busy writing news, reviewing news releases, copy from our sources and affiliate stations, making inquiries on the phone, writing sports, etcetera. At the 4pm hour, after ABC News runs, I co-anchor an on-air news shift with a local TV anchor and then I solo-anchor up to the 6pm hour. At least, that’s the present format. I also go into a separate recording studio at regular intervals during the afternoon drive-time slot to contact police agencies and other sources to gather/write up-to-the-minute traffic information, such as accidents, construction notes, etc. I then quickly voice-record these brief traffic reports into a computer system so that the reports can play on four of our stations. It’s exhausting, fast-paced and frenetic…but it’s me, it’s in my blood. I do not host anything. Yes, news sources phone in sometimes, for sure. I have been complimented hundreds of times on my voice or delivery. But any credit for that must go to God. I take pleasure not in that, but in doing a good job and having the hard work and years of training and effort pay off. God-given skill is nice, but the only thing that makes anyone truly good at anything is hard work. Inspiration is the mother of hard work. You have to do what you like. I love the station I’m at. And there are a lot of good people around me, including my immediate supervisor and my co-anchor. Cheers.
James … I am so like you, wanting to work at things that have excitement every day, challenges every day, and keep me busy in the best of ways — and feel that it can be seen or HEARD that i am in the heat of things. To MOVE what you are doing is rather rare and therefore wonderful, isn’t it — and I can imagine how great you are at it all. Thanks for letting me know — as this fills in all the blanks for me - or most of them. What a guy you are!!! Joan
You’re so sweet, Joan. But I’m just a person, like anyone else. It is people like you who impress me, with their kindness. Because, at the end of the day, talent and ego are fleeting, as are money and fame, but character endures. By the way, if you want to hear the station, go to www.wjrwam.com . Click the Listen Live tab, another Listen Live window/bar will appear. Double-click on it and wait a minute it for it to buffer and load. Make sure you have your sound up on the computer. Cheers.
You, dear James, are a far better person than most of us meet … and remember that!! But I understand jobs and no matter what you are doing, a great deal of the time it becomes almost routine — but once in a while, WOW!!! But loved the web site — so thanks for putting me on to it — quite good and easy to manipulate also!!!! YOU are great!!!!
Congratulations James! Sounds like you are loving what you do best! I know a little bit about the Media industry. My late husband was an On Air Broadcast Journalist in Ontario. Wild horses could not have dragged him from the TV or Radio Stations where he worked if there was a late breaking NEWS story! It was in his blood, a vital part of life. When he began in the 1960’s, the main service was the CP "rip & read" Service. No cell phones. Just CB & Police Monitors in his News Cruisers. I often found him asleep sitting in our driveway at 4am with the Cruiser still running and the Scanners blaring! Those were the times when he had just come back from reporting somewhere in Canada and he was trying to catch up on local news developments as fast as he could! Becomes a way of life, doesn’t it? Thank heavens we have dedicated Newsmen like yourself to tell it like it is!
Thanks, Sharon. I’m touched by your memory of your husband. Radio is truly a unique entity in that it is, potentially, the best vehicle for breaking news. TV and the Internet sometimes are, but a good news department is one of the elements that made radio grand back in the day.
Fortunately, I sense that the good old days could be returning to some small degree in radio. People are sick of hearing "Stairway to Heaven" and what-not 500 times a week on the FM dial, not to mention the non-stop commercials. One of the prime reasons that radio conglomerates are going bankrupt and belly-up — beyond the sour economy — is that people can now get most of their music needs met online, or through iPOD’s and other technology. So, how can radio survive? Answer: by going back to a local emphasis. Local news, local talk. I even think there could be a future niche for old-time type of radio plays.
Radio has been dead for so many decades in so many respects that most people, including radio-station owners and managers, don’t even know what a grand thing it once was - and could be again.
Hey, James! I don’t fall asleep because I know that if I try it will be a night filled with wake-up every 20 or so minutes. I’ve tried the pills, warm milk and so much more! I have found that if I simply work on the computer, doing dishes, etc., and keeping busy eventually makes me tired.
I have to admit though that I am more a night-owl than daytime person so on some nights it can be a long night!
Joan, I often wondered why many of your messages were dated with numbers indicating such early hours of the morning. I simply concluded that the labelling was incorrect because nobody would be up that early composing detailed responses such as yours, for lucky people like me, or many other friends of yours on this site. Now I know the secret. So that’s how you do it. (5am) !! Keeping milkman’s hours. I must train myself to do that. I’ll try anything once.
Lauriate … many of my writing friends find that the wee small hours of the morning also are the time when their writing is most prolific and productive — and we greet each other at 4am, 5am, and often after this spurt will go for a bit more sleep. I have friends who think around 3am is good for long writing chats and somehow we can say things that we might not in the light of day — a strange phenomonen. So yes, it is the pull of close friends, the silence of the hour that makes thinking so clear and uninterrupted — and that it how it can be. I love that life, I love the connections in the dark of night — and it is so great hearing from you at this later hour for me. A big HI!!!!!! Wish we could chat! Joan
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- The World in Vogue (Photos)
- Caption This!
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Caption This!
- Lily Tomlin Is Coming to NYC!
- Joan Ganz Cooney Still Shops the Way She Always Has
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Caption This!
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- The World in Vogue (Photos)
wOw Features
Reader Voices
Caption This!
Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
