Getting Through THOSE Nights

I’ve been having a lot of THOSE nights (capital let’s and italics very much needed)

It’s taken me years of getting through nights where I can’t sleep because I feel like I can’t breathe and I can’t be alone with my thoughts because holy shit that just not at all remotely what I need before I’ve gotten to this point where I have at least a small list of resources that consistently help me get through them

And just in case anyone out there reading this is having one of those nights themselves, here is that list. Please add on your own through comments or messaging me to add one – any suggestions are so, so appreciated if you think that they will help others in getting through those times

As far as I’m aware at the time of posting all of these resources are completely free to use and all the links work, if not let me know

Creativity

• Free knitting patterns – Easy knitting patterns for beginners. Even if you’re experienced with knitting on those nights sometimes all you want is something easy that you can complete quickly. Lovecrafts also has a lot of more advanced free knitting patterns if you want more of a challenge
• Word Sprints – They start every half an hour, just write as much as you can. Be it a short story, poem, novel chapter or anything. Write to get your thoughts out and don’t stop writing. You get a star for every 100 words and it’s very satisfying
  (Here’s a link to my room – Nifty-Frogs-153 if you want some company there’s a chance me or someone else might be in there, otherwise it’s very easy to join the global sprint or create your own room)
• This is Sand – Create some art online using different coloured sand
• Weave Silk – Creates beautiful patterns that are really satisfying to watch and look at
• Write a Letter – This isn’t an online resource, just something that I do to alleviate a little of my anxiety, which is to write a letter to myself. It works in a similar way to the word sprints, but a bit different in that I am directly trying to talk to myself and make sense of my thoughts

Listening

• Spotalike – Put in a song that you like and it’ll create you a playlist based off of that song
• Chill music – There’s a load of these on YouTube that you can check out but this is the one that I tend to come back to
• Rain for Me – Listening to the rain to relax
• The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse Audio – Tim Uffindell reading the audiobook

Websites

• Press this button – to make everything okay!
• Neal.fun – This website is full of fun little mini-games and sites that serve as good distractions, I’ve linked a couple of my favourites below!
  Macaroni Draw – Paint with pasta
  Progress – Watch the progression of time
  Your Empire – Conquer the world based on the places you’ve visited
• Picrew – I like to find fun-looking picrews to make either myself or just to mess around in!

Videos

• Hermitcraft Season 7 – The playlist of all of Grian’s Hermitcraft videos from season 7. Even if you don’t typically watch Minecraft videos, Hermitcraft is the most relaxing thing to watch and season 7 Grian especially brought me a lot of comfort
• Kitten Livestream – 24 hour livestream to watch kittens playing
• Otter Livestream – 24 hour livestream to watch otters playing (there’s a load of other aquarium-based livestreams on here too: sharks, jellyfish, etc. it’s just that I love otters)
• Twitch – You’ll always be able to find someone to watch as background noise on Twitch as a distraction, I’ve linked a couple of my favourites below

Organisations

• The Butterfly Project – For when you feel the urge to self harm
• Samaritans – I believe this is just a UK based project (other than the email service, though please don’t use this for emergencies)
  Call 116 123
• The Trevor Project – A US-based project set up to help struggling LGBTQ+ teens
  Call 1-866-488-7386
• 7 Cups – Online support for those that need it

Please do add suggest some of your own coping tools to get through those nights, I hope that you’re all staying safe and keeping well

Freddie 🐸