On a recent episode of the Best of Both Worlds podcast, Laura mentioned something about how her sleep is always around the 7 – 7.5 hour mark, on average.
I was slacking on my bedtime a few days last week but interestingly, when I checked my Fitbit stats, I realised I’m almost always around the 7.5 hour mark. And that it’s been that way for the last 2.5 years.
Yes, it takes discipline to actually go to bed because I’m a night owl and my natural tendency is to stay awake later because my brain is most awake then.
Yet, no matter how early I go to bed, I still fall asleep at roughly the same time unless I’m not well, and I wake after about 7.5 – 8 hours. I actually only set an alarm for two days every week. The rest of the time I wake around 7.
The trick for me is to stop doing other things to allow for reading time so that I can be sleeping by 11:30.
So my rule is – computer off by 10:30.
After the reading post published the other week, a reader asked why I need all my rules. The thing is I’m an upholder and discipline is my freedom. This might not resonate with any other type but other upholders will definitely understand.
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.
Do you know how much sleep you need? Do you get 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.
Sleep helps our bodies to work better, helps us with weight loss when we’re trying to lose weight, helps us have clear, functioning minds and of course, helps us rest and recharge from day to day.
Gretchen Rubin has written and spoken on the podcast about bedtimes. She said something interesting in that once you set a bedtime (we now know mine is 11:30), if you ignore that bedtime, then you’re consciously choosing to do what you were doing instead of going to bed.
This week’s coaching challenge for you:
– What is your usual 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 the amount of hours.
– 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.
I have not consciously tracked my sleep by number of hours, but I normally get to bed anywhere between 20h00 and 22h00…if I don’t, I start turning into a crabby person. 22h00 is almost too late for me.
I must be awake by 05h00 in order to get everywhere on time. I naturally wake by 04h30 and feel fine. I read before bedtime, it helps to quiet my mind and stop thinking about the daytime stuff.
I tend to fall asleep very quickly, and become crabby if I am disturbed within the first 2- hours after I fall asleep (eg. hubby getting into bed).
You have a very early wakeup so I would also be crabby if I wasn’t in bed by 9pmish 🙂