Sleep

I was on the train this morning, travelling into work, listening to Michelle’s little "snip tips" she puts up on the program website. I listened to the one about sleep. She gave us a sleep challenge. Firstly, she challenged the idea that we are born to be either morning people or night owls. More that it is a learned habit instead. She's probably right. I've got terrible sleeping habits. I always stay up late. I'm always so tired. Well, less tired since I've been looking after my health, but still - the fact that I am only getting around six hours sleep a night and I can't for the life of me get my arse out of bed to make it to work on time more mornings than not, is not a good sign.

And I do all of those activities she says we waste hours doing instead of sleeping - perusing Facebook, watching mind-numbing tv, etc etc. So I'm going to take on her challenge. 14 days of getting into bed at 9:30, lights off by 10pm, and up by 6am. And an hour later on those times for weekends. I think I need to set a recurring alarm on my phone to get used to those time frames. And then it will be interesting to see if and how my energy, sleepiness and mood in general changes over the next couple of weeks.

The more I think about it, the more I think how crucial sleep is. I think sleep is the centre of everything I do. It may be the determining factor of my success or failure in my general everyday commitments. Take a typical day for instance - I go to bed at 11:30pm. I generally don't get to sleep till after midnight, as my mind is winding down. My alarm in the morning goes off at 6am. Because I haven't had enough sleep I keep pressing snooze for at least 40 minutes, but I don't get any benefit out of that anyway because it’s broken sleep. I don't know why I do it. I'm just too wrecked to get up. So then I'm running late for work. I'm stressed and frazzled while getting ready, then I get to work late. My first half hour of work is pretty unproductive because I'm calming down from being stressed getting to work. Then I stay back at work in the evening to make up the time. Then I don't go to the gym because by the time I get out of work it feels too late to go (an excuse, I know!!). Then I get home, do some household chores to keep things turning over, and have dinner. By this time it's like 9:30. Then I'm catching up with my partner and watching some mind-numbing tv to try and relax and zone out from the day, before I head to bed. By this time, I'm getting to bed at 11:30 again and it starts all over.

Looking at a typical day, if I got to sleep earlier, I'd wake up earlier and get to work on time or even early. I wouldn’t be frazzled in the first half hour of work, saving even more time. I'd then be leaving work on time because I’d be up-to-date, and I wouldn't be skipping the gym. I'd be using that tv time more productively with sleep time instead, as my wind down time would be my exercise. Seems like a winning scenario to me. Better give it a good go then, starting tonight!