The hardest times are either side of sleep. Unless we know we are going to fall asleep immediately, laying in bed in the dark with our eyes closed is not a good thing to do. We were already night owls before. After finally getting Penn to bed and the kitchen clean around ten, we would find our most productive time from then until midnight or one, then unwind for an hour and go to bed.
Now, for me at least, those hours are rarely productive. Being awake is kind of like a constant dull ache, a subtle beat down, a heavy bag of dark matter carried around all day. While the middle of the day can be made tolerable and sometimes even enjoyable with the right amount and variant of mental distraction, by that silent time of night it is often like my bodymind has nothing left to offer but is still far from sleep. To be asleep by two feels like an accomplishment.
So it is onward into the night with the pills* and the distraction and the waiting for sleep to come.
So time has become somewhat compressed; days are disappearing rapidly. Even when I write these posts, I am always in disbelief of the days that have passed between them. (Perhaps part of that is because I write them in my head for days ahead of time. Incidentally, that is a horrible way to write.) Productivity is low, easy things are hard, simple things complex. (Unfortunately no leopards hanging out with goats, no lions eating straw.)
* We've tried generic Tylenol PM but found it wrecked us for the entire day following. We've had some success with Nature Made Sleep, but I've found one pill takes a long time to work, if it works at all, but two made my sleep too restless.