Who Needs Sleep?

First off, I'd like to welcome any new readers to my blog! I've just learnt how to link blogger to facebook (thank you Darren!), so I know I will be reaching a bigger audience.

It is debated constantly, it has been written about in song and it is something that we, as a society, seem to lack - sleep. It is an apparently well known fact that an adult needs 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Right now I am lucky if I get 6 hours of sleep (and yes, even though my behaviour questions this at times, I am an adult). I can't help it though! If I try to go to bed before midnight, I toss and turn and end up with a worse sleep than if I just went to bed at 12:30 am or 1 am and fall asleep right away. When I wake up in the morning though, I just can't get myself out of bed and end up pressing the snooze button at least half a dozen times. By a domino effect, this causes me to leave my morning routine to the absolute last minute possible, causing me to rush, and then getting to work a little bit flustered (and sometimes a little bit late).

So what does this mean? Well, I gave myself a 30 day fitness challenge back in September (read all about it!!) so why not give myself a sleep challenge? That is just a further part to wellness, right?

This is what my schedule next week is currently (leaving out any last minute plans with friends of course):

Monday, January 18, 2010

• 8 am - 4:30 pm - Work
• 5 pm - 6:30 pm - Gym
• 8 pm - 10 pm - Music

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

• 8 am - 4:30 pm - Work
• 7:45 pm - 10 pm - Volleyball

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

• 7 am - 7:30 am - Appointment
  
• 8 am - 4:30 pm - Work
• 6 pm - 7 pm - Personal Training
• 9 pm - 10 pm - Music

Thursday, January 21, 2010

• 8 am - 4:30 pm - Work
• 7 pm - 10 pm - Volleyball

Friday, January 22, 2010

• 8 am - 4:30 pm - Work
• 7 pm - 9 pm - Band Practice

Saturday, January 23, 2010

• No plans! I have the weekend off (miracle of miracles!) from my weekend job

Sunday, January 24, 2010

• No plans!

On most days, I should be able to get to bed by 11 pm. If I get to bed by 11 pm and wake up at 7 am, that's 8 hours of sleep! And it is still plenty of time in the morning to get me to work on time. On paper, this looks so easy!

Will there be challenges within the challenge? Yes...

• I am a social butterfly!! And to boot, I'm a night person! I like going out with friends and staying out until 2 or 3 am. Not every night, but at least 1 or 2 nights during the week!

• I love watching the news, and feel there is a more comprehensive look at the day's events if I watch the 11 o'clock news. I'm going to miss being an informed member of society.

• If I am in bed by 11, that doesn't mean I'm going to be asleep by 11, which is what is needed for a full 8 hours of sleep. So that means I have to put myself to bed by 10:30 at least so that I can read and try and put myself into a more relaxed state so I can fall asleep by 11.

• The last challenging thing about this is a major one because its one of those things that I have never had any sort of control over - creativity. When it hits, you have to listen to it or fear losing your idea and never getting it back. When does it hit for me? In the middle of the night usually. Picking up my nylon-string guitar (so I don't disrupt my neighbours) and plucking out a haunting chord progression (think of the chord progression one might use for Canon or Everybody Hurts or something with a lot of minor chords) can relax me when I am restless, and be the key to a new song that I start. This even happened to me last week and I know the creative juices are a LOT more present these days with no more school.

Now, one can't go cold turkey when it comes to forcing oneself to sleep at a certain time, so there has to be some sort of progression I think. My above schedule is pretty much the way it is going to be for the next little while. So this is what I'm going to do, starting Monday, January 18, 2010, ending Tuesday, February 16, 2010 (30 days!!!) I am going to challenge myself to progressing from 5-6 hours of sleep per night to 7-8 hours of sleep per night. From January 18-24, 2010, based on a 1 am regular bedtime, I am going to go to bed 15 minutes earlier (12:45 am). From January 25-31, 2010, I am going to increase the time increment to 30 minutes from the previous time (12:15 am). From February 1-7, 2010, I am going to increase the time increment to 45 minutes from the previous time (11:30 pm) (yay, I'll at least get the headlines!). From February 8-16, 2010, I am going to go to bed at 10:45 pm. I am going to get up at 7 am each day, even on my days off. I think this is progressive enough.

During this 30 day challenge I am going to monitor my moods, the way I deal with stress, my overall wellness during the day and my ability to jump out of bed vs. dragging myself out of bed. What if I don't see any difference in the way I feel after the challenge? Well, then I'll do what I do now - sleep when I'm tired.

That's all for now! Happy sleeping!

PS - got any hints for sleep aids or other things I can challenge myself on? Leave a comment!!