Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I don’t know why but sometimes I find it really hard to sleep well. I go to bed, I’m tired and looking forward to a good night’s rest. Yesterday, I still looked forward to it about 2 hours later when I check how long it’s been since I went to bed. My next move was to start reading. Yesterday, I read for only 45 minutes but previously, I managed to finish a whole book before sunrise and getting up groggy and disheartened.
This is annoying, frustrating and maddening.
It’s frustrating because I didn’t even drink coffee yesterday. I went to bed at my usual time, followed my usual bedtime routine and it still didn’t work. Two hours into lying awake and listening to the muffled night time noises, I even got up and took a dose of Melotonin, in the hope that it would help me enter that elusive dream land. I did fall asleep for a little while but kept waking up sporadically.
Why am I so frustrated by insufficient sleep? you ask.
I am frustrated because I have been cleaning up my old bad sleep habits over the past few years. I actively went out there learning why sleep is important for physical health and mental health such as your mood. I read up on the healing process which only takes place during deep sleep. I learnt what to do to get good sleep from blackout curtains to the right temperature for sleeping to eye masks to using blue light blocking glasses before bedtime etc. Keep in mind that a study found that “restricted sleep affects facial appearance negatively and decreases others’ willingness to socialize with the sleep-restricted person.“
I felt I was doing all I can. So what went wrong?
Simple. Stress and bad habits. Better said: stress and one bad habit which seems hard to shake off. My main vice has always been to push late into the night, go to bed too late and not getting enough sleep. I was forever trying to finish something even if there is very little chance that it will actually be done without needing rework. Last week, I had two nights in a row doing that when my partner and I published our first video game. It felt great at the time to finish something we had been working on for a long time. However, I’m pretty sure this has thrown my circadian rhythm off kilter and I’m still suffering the consequences even if they weren’t noticeable immediately.
Did you know, it is just as important to go to bed at the same time time every day than it is to get up at the same time every day?
So my intention is to go back to good sleep habits and go to bed at the same time every day once and for all. I even set an alarm clock for bed time starting today 🙂
Are you happy with your sleep? I hope you are but if not, what will you do to improve your sleep?