I truly believe that a good night’s sleep is where it all begins. A restful night gives you energy to power through the day, make smart decisions, and be more efficient. The few times I’m able to get the golden 8 hours of sleep, which is usually on the weekends, my mood and mindset is much better. Sadly, my fitbit says I average between 5.5 to 6.5 hours of sleep on weekdays.
I have tried to get a bed-time routine down, but to no avail. I don’t really have a set time to go to bed (unless 2 AM can be considered one?), but I do have an 8 to 5 job. The problem is I’m a tried and true night owl. Always have been. Despite being tired throughout the day and requiring 2 to 3 cups of coffee to function, I’m wide awake at 10 PM. I know what some may say, that the caffeine kicks in later on. And I would have agreed, but for the fact that this 10 PM wind can happen even when I don’t drink caffeine.
Of course though, everything is cyclical right? I get bad sleep, so I take a nap on my hour-long commute, and chug coffee to wake-up, and sluggishly make it through the day, only to get home and dilly dally. In between, I make bad decisions (i.e., food-related – snacking all the time, task-related – getting distracted easily because I don’t have the mental wherewithal, fitness-related – blowing off the gym, etc.) and procrastinate. In lieu of all this, I’ve decided to get a solid night-time routine down before I start my first 30 day challenge in April.
Here are the things I plan on doing:
- I shower at night around 11:30 PM right before I go to bed. In other words, the time I shower usually determines my bed time. I tend to put showering off though because it’s one of those things I dread time/effort-wise, but know I need to do to feel clean. I use public transportation and work in an open-office environment, so I can only imagine how many germs I carry home with me. My goal is to shower by 10 PM.
- Drinking tea helps me go to bed, but I usually don’t have time to make a cup after my late night shower. With the 10 PM goal in mind, I should be able to make a cup. One of my personal favorites is Sleepytime Tea.
- I have to take a sleep aid at night because my fiancee snores like a horse and I’m a light sleeper. We’ve tried breathing strips on him, but they just don’t work. And without the sleep aid, I’m left resentfully staring at him as he gets some rest. It’s not fun. What’s worse though is that you usually need a good 7 to 8 hours to not wake up sleepy, and I don’t usually get that. I wake up at 6:30, so my goal is to take one Advil PM by 11 PM.
- Diligently wear a sleep mask at night. I’m a fan of Dream Essentials. Thing is, I suffer from nocturnal lagophthalmos, which means that I sleep with my eyelids partially open. This adds to being a light sleeper because I’m sensitive to light. A sleep mask allows for complete darkness and protects my eyes from dryness. I wear my sleep mask on occasion, but the times I don’t are usually due to wet hair. Straps and wet hairs don’t make a good combination. With an earlier shower time though, I should have somewhat dry hair by the time I go to bed.
- Track my bedtime and go to bed 15 minutes earlier every night until I fall asleep by 11:30 PM. I love my Fitbit Charge 2 for tracking my sleep times because it’s extremely accurate. The Charge 2 has a heart rate tracker, so it can tell you when you at a resting/sleeping state. It also tells me how often I wake up in the middle of the night. All very helpful information. In my next post, I’ll go more into detail with what the Fitbit Charge 2 can do. 🙂
Any and all sleep tips are welcome!
30 Day Life Challenges 