Today is the first day of my seventh month of the year-long foundation project. The focus of this month is sleep. If you are interested, here are my notes from the past six months:
- Fitness: Begin, end, books.
- Productivity: Begin, end, books.
- Money: Beginning, ending, books.
- Food: Beginning, ending, books.
- Reading: Beginning, Ending, and Books.
- Outreach: Beginning, Ending, Books.
Sleep is crucial to health, productivity and well-being. However, usually we don’t give it the attention it deserves. Although those who are often ashamed of our culture on fitness or healthy diets, lack of sleep is exaggerated – closing too little eyes is a badge of honor, demonstrating our work ethics and firmness.
Recently, popular discussions about sleep have begun to assign its due importance. Even so, culture will change slowly. When I discussed this basic list with friends, one of them gave me a quirky look when I suggested that a full month of focus on sleep was better. Exercise, of course. But what about sleeping?
Despite recent attention, sleep is still underestimated as a driving force for physical health, positive emotions, productivity and all-round happiness.
My sleep (or lack of sleep)
For me personally, sleep is one of the most difficult foundations. Most of this is due to being fathers of two little kids, and despite their adorableness, they are not always favorable for eight uninterrupted hours per night.
My typical sleep routine is pretty good. I usually go to bed between 9:30 and 10:00 pm and wake up between 5:30 and 6:00 AM. On days without interruption, this may be close to the amount of sleep my body actually needs. In the rare cases of sleeping at 6:00 am, I usually wake up spontaneously between 6:30 and 7:00 AM. The challenge I faced was not my typical sleep routine, but that several nights were atypical. Although my two kids (not 5 and 2) fell asleep all night, at least one of them woke up before 5:30, about 50%.
Sometimes it was just a quick interrupt that didn’t affect my sleep. In other cases, the interrupt becomes an early wake-up. For example, my two-year-old woke up almost every day at 4:00 or 4:30 a.m. for most of the last month. It seems we have pulled her back on the normal schedule, but travel, cold or other minor changes can bring us back to the unfortunate rhythm of sleep.
When I’m not sleeping enough, my functions are also poor. Some people seem to need more sleep to work best, while others can pass in 4-6 hours without disturbing them. I must have been in the previous group, before having a baby, I had eight hours of sleep almost every night.
My sleep is definitely worse, though. I don’t have any problems with insomnia – I rarely need more than 5-10 minutes to fall asleep when I lie down and rarely wake up for more than a few minutes at night. I’m also a great diaper and I can even sleep for about ten minutes if I need it. As far as I know, I don’t have any health issues related to sleep, which can be so frustrating for many people.
My plan to improve sleep
Before this month, I noticed that I was a little pessimistic about whether I could do anything to improve my sleep. My wife and I are very proficient in behavioral strategies to get the kids to fall asleep better (continuous bedtime, wake up lights, comfort, etc.), and I have followed many suggestions to improve my sleep (consistent bedtime habits, getting up early, going to bed early, avoiding caffeine late in the day). Some problems in life are not easy to solve. Fortunately, sleep problems due to children are usually temporary, so some of them may just be something I have to wait for a year or two.
But when I started doing some early readings and doing some brainstorming this month, I realized there were actually a lot of things I could do better. The most important thing is to keep a strict record of my sleep even if I don’t have a solution right now, which may point to a solution I’ve never considered before.
So, I’ll try to improve my sleep quality this month:
- Start taking a nap again. I used to be a diaper almost every day. Twenty to thirty minutes are usually enough, which can make a big difference. Once I started working in the office, I mostly stopped this habit-even if I knew it would be better for my nap instead of continuing to work, there was never a comfortable place to stretch. I think if I brought my yoga mat and a small pillow, I might get a good setting that makes a 20-minute nap a regular part of my day again.
- Going to bed early is more consistent, especially after poor sleep. If I can’t sleep well, my hardest times are usually around 4:00 to 6:00 pm when I feel like a zombie. By then, any caffeine in my system had been exhausted, until I usually sleep for a few more hours. However, before 9pm, I’m usually very alert, even if I only slept for a few hours the night before. I may not be able to fully control my sleep, but when I am not sleeping enough, I can at least go to bed earlier.
- Cut into a cup of coffee every day. I drank a lot of coffee. Sometimes, I even drink three to four cups of coffee throughout the day. Since I tend to fall asleep quickly, the benefits of research support for caffeine consumption may outweigh the costs and therefore was not a top priority for me at first. However, this month, I will only stick with my morning coffee as an experiment.
- Avoid television or exercise after 8:30 pm. When I started the program for the year, I was a consistent 6:00 AM jog, but a few months of kids interfered with sleep, and my wife broke her feet and pushed her feet away, forcing me to exercise later. However, I found that exercise made it difficult for me to fall asleep after 8:00 pm, so I will do my best to keep it. I don’t see a lot of TV before going to bed, but if that happens, I will also note it.
- Sleep Keep Journal. I will write some short notes every day while I sleep this month, any distractions, and my overall mood. This is the sleep tracking on my fitbit and should help me make some empirical observations of my sleep, not just relying on my memory.
Overall, as I think these changes, I am cautiously optimistic. Hopefully I can have the quality (and quantity) of baseline sleep at night, unless that, at least when I have poor sleep throughout the day, at least some recovery naps throughout the day to improve my function. As usual, I will notify you of the end of the month in a timely manner!
Post Sleep: First appearance on Scott H Young.
