Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Adult

I think I've discovered the secret to a happy life.  The secret, for me, is to get the same amount of sleep EVERY night.  I know, I know, it seems obvious.  But it really isn't.  For a long time, I slept 5-6 hours during the week, and WAY more on the weekends.  It was a very collegiate sleep schedule.  And I functioned just fine that way.  I don't ever remember feeling so tired that I couldn't stay awake, even when I was working on my feet for 8 hours a day, running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  (Retail at xmas is like that.)

But I really think that my shift in sleep needs happened when the depression took hold.  Depressed, I was sleeping 11-12 hours a night, and I felt like I NEEDED that.  It was never enough.  I could never sleep enough.  As the depression lifted, I started getting less sleep, and that was okay.  Usually 9-10 hours a night.  Of course, starting a job provided another jolt to my schedule--I was getting less sleep than before, and I wasn't getting enough.  For about a month, I'd get home from work, mope on the couch after work, and go to sleep by nine.  Now, though, my schedule has mostly regulated.

I need 7.5 to 8.5 hours of sleep a night.  I can't survive without those hours.  And I can't ever get more than that, or it throws me way off.  I can't sleep more on the weekend, I can't sleep less during the week.  The challenge has been to regulate during the weekend.  Do I really want to set my alarm for seven AM?  Or should I trust my body?

This morning, I trusted my body, and it did wake me up at the right time.  From now on, though, I'm going to need to police my sleep, all the time.  Even if that means setting the alarm for a time that seems bizarrely early.

To Ktla:
I totally know what you mean about seeing the time on the alarm and not wanting to get up on the weekend.  Before I resolved to change this unhealthy sleep schedule, I'd hit the sleep button forever, because it seemed too early to be up.  So instead of getting up ungodly early, I've decided to stay up later.  If I stay up 'til midnight, that's an awake time of eight, which seems more reasonable (for no reason, but there you go) than seven.  Usually, it's not hard to stay up later, and then I irrationally feel like I'm sleeping in.  I will say that this weekend, I basically successfully limited myself to eight hours a night, and it feels great.  I know that I'll sleep well tonight, and last week, I couldn't say that on Sunday night.  Plus, I have this bizarre idea that if I'm getting out of bed earlier on the weekend, I'll do things.  I'll get more done.  I know that essentially this is false, and that all it means is that I'll have more couch-sitting time, but I'm pretending.  I did actually make it to a workout this weekend, for the first time in ages, and I'm pretending it's the sleep and not the weight gain.  Whatever.  I know this will be good for me.  I'm hoping that's enough motivation.

Comments

[ktla]

Good for you for "training" your body to get the proper amount of sleep. I find myself always wanting to sleep, and when I do sleep, never feeling fully rested. I thought exercise would help it but it hasn't. Maybe I should try your deal where I actually get the same amount of sleep 7 days a week, although I've tried and when the alarm goes off early on a Sat. or Sun. morning and really I have no reason to be up that early, it's hard to do, but I am going to try, you're my motivation!