Are you getting enough sleep?

I realised on Sunday night as I got into bed at 12:30 am that I’ve been slacking on my bedtime.

Yes, I’m a night owl so my natural tendency is to work late because my brain is most awake then.

However, I work full-time so I don’t have the luxury of living totally in tune with my body clock.

I used to have a rule about my bedtime and, to be honest, it still exists. I’m just not following it all that well.

I like to be sleeping by 12 so I need to be in bed by 11 since I read for an hour every night – bliss!

And here’s my rule – computer off by 10:30.

I found I’d be getting to bed at least 30 minutes later when I didn’t enforce my computer rule because I forgot about tidying the desk, doing my bedtime routine, etc.

So my question to you is this – are you getting enough sleep?

Most adults don’t get enough sleep and we’re all functioning (or not) at below-par levels of productivity and simply, life enjoyment.

I need 7 hours a night. On the weekends I get an extra hour and sometimes even an afternoon nap with the babies, also known as my two-year-old twins.

Do you know how much sleep your body needs?

The other day Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project, wrote a post asking about bedtimes.

She said something interesting in that once you set a bedtime (we now know mine is 11 or 12, depending how you look at it), if you ignore your bedtime, you’re then consciously choosing to do what you were doing instead of going to bed.

I love it!

So here’s this week’s coaching challenge:

– What is your wake-up time?
– Work back at least 7 hours. That is the time you have to be asleep by.
– How long do you need before falling asleep? Subtract that time.
– Also subtract time for your bedtime routine – face, teeth, reading, etc.
– For the next week, set an alarm or reminder in your phone or computer that says “go to bed”.
– Keep track of your productivity the following day as you start getting enough sleep and let me know how you feel by posting in the comments.
– If you need help getting control of your time, let me coach you! Email me now.Google

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Comments

  1. I used to have a “go to bed” alarm set up on my phone, but my routines disappeared (bug or mistakes? not sure!) and I’ve been going to bed much later since then. Good reminder that I need to set it up again, it helps!!!

  2. I read Gretchen’s post too, and every night since I have realised that I am going to bed way past my bed time. But the thing is, I know it’s past my bedtime so it is just as she said, a conscious decision. And then today a friend told me I looked tired as soon as she sat down opposite me at a coffee shop. So tonight it is off to bed early because god knows my brain and body feels sluggish, but I didn’t realise that it was that obvious in my eyes and skin too. We seem to forget that all over effect lack of sleep can have on us, internally and externally. Tme to switch off the computer now and start the wind down process …… sweet dreams all!

    • Marcia Francois says

      Looks like lots of us are in this position, Laura. I’ve had tons of emails too 🙂

      I’ve taken Chloe’s tip and put a reminder on my computer (recurring, with no end date!) so tonight I should go sleep in time.

  3. Heather says

    Oh, oh, oh – such a precious photo of your babies napping. 🙂

    • Marcia Francois says

      It is precious, isn’t it? That’s called “beach sleep”, the one where the kids are knackered after playing on the beach in the morning LOL

  4. I actually NEED a minimum of 8 hours to function effectively the next day. Like you, I’m a night owl and because I work full time I don’t have the luxury of living in tune with my body clock.
    I need to be lights out by 21:30. This effectively means that I can only be on the computer for about 40minutes at night, especially if I also want to read for an hour before bed. It has taken LOTS of fine-tuning of the schedule to get this right and I battle to go to bed early but my body really needs it. It is something that can be done. Co-incidentally, this past week I decided to relax my 21:30 bedtime because I had loads of things to do that I wasn’t getting to. I’ve been going to bed a little bit after midnight this entire week and I get up at 05:15am. I am literally a dead person walking and it’s like my body has gone into shock.

    • Marcia Francois says

      I love how you’re measuring both extremes – both the 9:30 and the midnight bedtimes. Do you find you lack anything else by the early bedtime?

  5. I read this great article last year by Andrew Fuller called An ideal day. The article is all about sleep and setting yourself up physically and mentally to have an ideal day. Very inspiring. Makes you think! Here’s the link: http://www.andrewfuller.com.au/index.php?Do=ContentView&pageno=100
    I tend to get into sleep debt. If I have a late night or a bad night’s sleep I’m ok the next day but 2 days later I am awful! Thanks

  6. great article…you really got me thinking about my bedtime routine…or lack thereof. I can feel the effects daily of not getting enough sleep, but being a night owl by nature, it takes some serious discipline to put an earlier bedtime into action. Thank you for the encouragement 🙂

    Georgia

    • Marcia Francois says

      I honestly think it’s harder for the night owls to get to bed at a decent hour because we come alive at night.

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