Getting Healthy

I’ve been doing the new sleep regimen for about a week now. I didn’t follow it on Friday or Saturday, but I figured who follows their sleep regimen on the weekend when they don’t have work or school?

Last week, I felt really tired. But, I think that’s because I started to force myself to get up when my alarm went off, not after I snoozed it for an hour. Today, I feel okay. I’m still tired because getting up at 6:00 in the morning is tiring when you’re not a morning person. But, I feel more refreshed!

Also, not sticking to my regimen on the weekend helped me see something. Even though I was dead tired by the time I went to bed on Friday and Saturday, it still took me forever to fall asleep. I don’t know if that’s because my melatonin was inhibited by the electronics I was glued to or what. But, I didn’t have a hard time falling asleep last night or Thursday night; I actually fell right asleep. I didn’t lie awake in bed for over and hour wondering why I couldn’t fall asleep like I usually do. I’ll take that as an improvement!

Now, we need to work on staying asleep at night.

One of the things that contributes to my general feeling of ennui is that I’m always tired. I have a hard time staying awake most days. I fall asleep at work and I often fall asleep only two hours after waking up on the weekends. It’s got to stop!

The last time I was visiting my niece and her family, her husband mentioned a study that shows people who use electronics withing two hours of bedtime don’t sleep well. The light interferes with the body’s natural production of melatonin, which is what helps you sleep. I found an article about it in USA Today.

I’ve decided to do an experiment and see if my constant connectivity of all things media is really contributing to my poor sleep. I started doing the following last night, but I’m going to continue throughout the month of February to see if I notice a difference in how well I sleep at night:

• Go to bed no later than 10:00 pm, preferably 9:30 pm
• Stop using all electronic devices, except possibly listening to soothing music or reading on my Kindle since it’s not back-lit, by 7:30 pm*
• Read, crochet/knit, spend quality time with Corey, or do something non-electronic to pass the time before going to bed
• Charge my cell phone downstairs and put it on silent so there are no distractions from it
• Use an actual alarm clock to wake me up each morning instead of the alarm on my cell phone

Hopefully, doing these things will help. I’ll add the other things suggested in the article as time goes on as well. I just really wanted to make changes to the electronic portion of my sleep regimen because I’m sure it’s a huge factor as I’m always connected to some device right before bedtime, sometimes even in bed.

*If I find that music and my Kindle are doing damage to my sleep, then I’ll stop them by 7:30 pm as well.