(and following this thing called a "Routine")
I'm a night-owl. Have been since I was little, if my mother is to be believed. My brain has a tendency to want to wake up around 9:00 p.m. or so, usually in spite of how tired I may be otherwise.
But... I have a day job. One that includes a long drive and a long walk just to get to the office. So staying up late (especially in the last few years of aging) has been more and more ill-advised.
Back in November I started trying to go to bed at 11:00 on weeknights. It was honestly hard at first. I was more used to staying up to midnight or 12:30, sometimes even 1:00 am, just watching TV or reading or piddling around on the internet. However, after a couple of weeks my body (and my brain) got used to it, and I've definitely noticed a difference in my alertness level during the day.
For the 100-day challenge I'm going to try and bump this bedtime up to 10:00, which is going to be really, really hard, but could be really rewarding.
In addition to going to bed at a certain time of night, I'd really like to be able to wake up at a certain time of the morning.
This is a much bigger challenge. In high school and college I was one of those people who slept as long as humanly possible before bounding out, flying through the bare minimum of dress and hygiene time and bouncing out the door with breakfast in hand on the way to my very full day.
I am not 22 anymore. This is no longer the case. I need time to wake up, clear my brain cobwebs, snuggle my cats, etc.
On the rare occasion that I actually commit to waking up the mornings (I tend to make love to the snooze button for half an hour), they can actually be the most productive for me. Maybe it's the quiet. Maybe it's the psychology of cleaning something being a more appealing choice than going out in the cold to get to work (as opposed to the evenings when I'm tired and the choice is clean something vs. sit and watch TV).
My hope is that I can follow a 10:00pm - 5:00 am sleep schedule. This year, I have a very specific reason I want to be early-morning productive, but I'll talk about that at a later date.
I will be back on Monday. The big'un. DAY ONE!!! Measurements and weigh-in and a "before" picture, if I'm feeling especially brave.
In the meantime, ♪♫ "When you wake up, WAKE UP! It's healthy!" ♪♫
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