I'm dumping blogger. Find the content that was here @
www.nickmcintosh.com.au
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Getting up @ 7am sleep log - Day 30
Friday, day 30.
The End.
So I'm done. Friday was day 30 and I crawled out of bed at 7am for the 30th time in a row. It was actually touch and go for a few minutes as I got up, switched off my alarm and promptly got back into bed. This is one of the specific things I've been trying not to do and it surprised me a little later in the morning that I had actually allowed myself to get back into bed.
The instant take away is that 30 days may not be long enough in itself to re-program my morning routine, or alternately that I haven't been sufficiently vigilant enough in the mornings and enforce a consistent routine on myself.
So perhaps a review of the last month is now in order. The specific goal when I started this was to improve my sleeping habits, and I think I've done this for the last 30 days. However, whether or not this becomes a permanent change only time will tell.
The second and perhaps more important aspect of this experiment was to see how hard it was for me to make a small change and actually stick with it for an extended period time, especially when I know there will be aspects of it that I know will be unpleasant. This self discipline is something that I’m trying to develop little by little. Prior to start this experiment, I was quite anxious about whether or not I could actually do it for 30 days, but looking back now I feel that it was quite easy to accomplish. The up shot of this being that I’ve got a little bit more confidence in my ability to try and implement a change and stick with it.
The idea being that it is easier to make small incremental changes in life and stick with them than it is to try and make larger changes. If I wanted to improve my sleep, exercise, diet, work ethic and tried to do it all in one hit I know it wouldn’t last. But if I try slowly complete them one at a time it should be more successful as although there will be individual setbacks, I will have created a base on which to build.
There are a couple of practical issues as to getting up at 7am that I feel I must address. Saying I will get up at 7am everyday without exception will not fit with my lifestyle and there’s been several occasions during this 30 day period where its been extremely difficult as I’ve been out quite late or have been otherwise late to bed. So I’m not interested in making this a fixed permanent change because in the case of last night I wasn’t home until 2:30am and as such, forcing myself to get up at 7am is just dumb as clearly I haven’t had enough sleep. However what I am going to try and do is revert back to 7am the next day.
I’ve tried a bunch of different processes and techniques to optimise this experiment and if anyone else is looking to do something similar, here are the most important things that I’ve found:
1. If you’re trying to implement a change and are worried that you’ll try and back out of it later or start to let things slip, get your friends involved and set it up in such a way that you have constant positive re-enforcement.
2. Getting up in the morning and staying up is very hard for me and good intentions don’t seem to count for anything as my brain simply isn’t functional immediately after getting up. Instead of trying to ‘will’ yourself to make the change and getting frustrated when you inevitably get back into bed recognise what you’re doing and make it easier for yourself so you don’t have to think in the morning. In my case this encompasses a couple of things like putting the alarm clock in the bathroom so that I’m already in the bathroom without having to actually tell myself to go in there. Other things can include having a glass of water ready for the morning which should help to wake you up and picking your clothes out the night before. If you remove the act of having to think each process though like “go to kitchen, open cupboard, get glass, fill glass, drink” to just “pick up glass, drink” there’s a much greater chance of success as there’s less available failure points.
3. Identify problems and setbacks, analyse what’s causing them and experiment with solutions. For instance, if you find yourself waking in the middle of the night consistently, start by collecting data on each instance and see if you can spot a pattern. Does it happen at a similar time, do you need to use the bathroom, what did you eat / drink before bed etc. Then try and make small changes and see if it helps. In my case, I was waking a number of times during the night and the timing and frequency was inconsistent. But on Wednesday morning I was definitely woken by the garbage truck doing its rounds so that gave me the idea of earplugs.
Finally, prepared for an adoption period that can be much more difficult that you previously imagined and also expect psychological highs and lows but when this happens I’d strongly recommend picking up the phone and just having a chat to one of those friends whom you’ve already involved.
Thank you to everyone for taking an interest, leaving comments and fielding my early morning calls. I realise this is long but ultimately I’ve been writing it for myself as a record and I want to be as detailed as necessary. I’ve got some ideas for the next 30 days…
- Nick
2 May 2009
The End.
So I'm done. Friday was day 30 and I crawled out of bed at 7am for the 30th time in a row. It was actually touch and go for a few minutes as I got up, switched off my alarm and promptly got back into bed. This is one of the specific things I've been trying not to do and it surprised me a little later in the morning that I had actually allowed myself to get back into bed.
The instant take away is that 30 days may not be long enough in itself to re-program my morning routine, or alternately that I haven't been sufficiently vigilant enough in the mornings and enforce a consistent routine on myself.
So perhaps a review of the last month is now in order. The specific goal when I started this was to improve my sleeping habits, and I think I've done this for the last 30 days. However, whether or not this becomes a permanent change only time will tell.
The second and perhaps more important aspect of this experiment was to see how hard it was for me to make a small change and actually stick with it for an extended period time, especially when I know there will be aspects of it that I know will be unpleasant. This self discipline is something that I’m trying to develop little by little. Prior to start this experiment, I was quite anxious about whether or not I could actually do it for 30 days, but looking back now I feel that it was quite easy to accomplish. The up shot of this being that I’ve got a little bit more confidence in my ability to try and implement a change and stick with it.
The idea being that it is easier to make small incremental changes in life and stick with them than it is to try and make larger changes. If I wanted to improve my sleep, exercise, diet, work ethic and tried to do it all in one hit I know it wouldn’t last. But if I try slowly complete them one at a time it should be more successful as although there will be individual setbacks, I will have created a base on which to build.
There are a couple of practical issues as to getting up at 7am that I feel I must address. Saying I will get up at 7am everyday without exception will not fit with my lifestyle and there’s been several occasions during this 30 day period where its been extremely difficult as I’ve been out quite late or have been otherwise late to bed. So I’m not interested in making this a fixed permanent change because in the case of last night I wasn’t home until 2:30am and as such, forcing myself to get up at 7am is just dumb as clearly I haven’t had enough sleep. However what I am going to try and do is revert back to 7am the next day.
I’ve tried a bunch of different processes and techniques to optimise this experiment and if anyone else is looking to do something similar, here are the most important things that I’ve found:
1. If you’re trying to implement a change and are worried that you’ll try and back out of it later or start to let things slip, get your friends involved and set it up in such a way that you have constant positive re-enforcement.
2. Getting up in the morning and staying up is very hard for me and good intentions don’t seem to count for anything as my brain simply isn’t functional immediately after getting up. Instead of trying to ‘will’ yourself to make the change and getting frustrated when you inevitably get back into bed recognise what you’re doing and make it easier for yourself so you don’t have to think in the morning. In my case this encompasses a couple of things like putting the alarm clock in the bathroom so that I’m already in the bathroom without having to actually tell myself to go in there. Other things can include having a glass of water ready for the morning which should help to wake you up and picking your clothes out the night before. If you remove the act of having to think each process though like “go to kitchen, open cupboard, get glass, fill glass, drink” to just “pick up glass, drink” there’s a much greater chance of success as there’s less available failure points.
3. Identify problems and setbacks, analyse what’s causing them and experiment with solutions. For instance, if you find yourself waking in the middle of the night consistently, start by collecting data on each instance and see if you can spot a pattern. Does it happen at a similar time, do you need to use the bathroom, what did you eat / drink before bed etc. Then try and make small changes and see if it helps. In my case, I was waking a number of times during the night and the timing and frequency was inconsistent. But on Wednesday morning I was definitely woken by the garbage truck doing its rounds so that gave me the idea of earplugs.
Finally, prepared for an adoption period that can be much more difficult that you previously imagined and also expect psychological highs and lows but when this happens I’d strongly recommend picking up the phone and just having a chat to one of those friends whom you’ve already involved.
Thank you to everyone for taking an interest, leaving comments and fielding my early morning calls. I realise this is long but ultimately I’ve been writing it for myself as a record and I want to be as detailed as necessary. I’ve got some ideas for the next 30 days…
- Nick
2 May 2009
Getting up @ 7am sleep log - Days 28 & 29
Thursday (Day 29)
I'm almost done and I didn't even realise! I thought today was 27 or 28. I think I miss counted somewhere.
The last two days have been bad, mainly because I've broken my rule of not having caffeine after 5pm on both occasions and not getting to be early enough.
This morning was very tough and it was touch and go for about 1.5hrs where my body was screaming at me for more sleep. I'm very lucky that I got a phone call at 7:40am as I was about to resign myself to taking a morning nap.
Tomorrow, Friday 1 May 2009 is day 30 and I'll knock out an extended summary post then :)
I'm almost done and I didn't even realise! I thought today was 27 or 28. I think I miss counted somewhere.
The last two days have been bad, mainly because I've broken my rule of not having caffeine after 5pm on both occasions and not getting to be early enough.
This morning was very tough and it was touch and go for about 1.5hrs where my body was screaming at me for more sleep. I'm very lucky that I got a phone call at 7:40am as I was about to resign myself to taking a morning nap.
Tomorrow, Friday 1 May 2009 is day 30 and I'll knock out an extended summary post then :)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Getting up @ 7am sleep log - Days 26
Inside the last 5 days and I'm feeling good!
Up and about with no problems and sitting back with a very good cup of coffee.
Yesterday's early morning exercise doesn't seem to have caused me any problems and the normal fatigue is missing from today which is nice.
There's not really anything that I want to add for the last couple of days other than the fact i'm looking forward to switching off the alarm for a couple of mornings and just sleeping for as long as my body wants to. Which could well be 7:01 am. We'll see.
At this stage I'm intending to continue getting up at 7am regularly but if I have a late night I'll make sure I get enough sleep and push the 7am wake up back accordingly with the view to getting back to normal the following morning. I'm not sure how well this will work but I think it might be better than forcing myself to get up when I still need more sleep.
Up and about with no problems and sitting back with a very good cup of coffee.
Yesterday's early morning exercise doesn't seem to have caused me any problems and the normal fatigue is missing from today which is nice.
There's not really anything that I want to add for the last couple of days other than the fact i'm looking forward to switching off the alarm for a couple of mornings and just sleeping for as long as my body wants to. Which could well be 7:01 am. We'll see.
At this stage I'm intending to continue getting up at 7am regularly but if I have a late night I'll make sure I get enough sleep and push the 7am wake up back accordingly with the view to getting back to normal the following morning. I'm not sure how well this will work but I think it might be better than forcing myself to get up when I still need more sleep.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Getting up @ 7am sleep log - Days 24 & 25
Monday
I don't know where I am today. It's 11:30am and I'm having trouble focusing mentally.
The last couple of days have been ok, not great but not bad. Clearly I've caught up on some sleep as I've been in bed before midnight on both nights. Also when for a run this morning again @ 7:30am and I'm interested to see how much it takes out of me.
I'm into the home stretch now and I'm really glad that this is coming to an end.
I don't know where I am today. It's 11:30am and I'm having trouble focusing mentally.
The last couple of days have been ok, not great but not bad. Clearly I've caught up on some sleep as I've been in bed before midnight on both nights. Also when for a run this morning again @ 7:30am and I'm interested to see how much it takes out of me.
I'm into the home stretch now and I'm really glad that this is coming to an end.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Getting up @ 7am sleep log - Days 22 & 23
Friday and Saturday
It's been a rough couple of mornings. The key reason being is that I haven't been able to get to bed early enough.
Thursday was a very long day, after the run @ 6am I was already behind the 8-ball and the fact that I decided to go out on the town thursday night exacerbated matters. I didn't get to bed until 1am and 6 hrs sleep after a big day wasn't really enough.
Friday was didn't help as again I went out in the evening to see friends and didn't get to bed until after midnight.
Subsequently right now (Sat 8:40am) I'm feeling a little 'out of it' and coffee I'm drinking doesn't feel like it's picking me up as much as normal. Today will be tough. I need to get to bed before midnight tonight.
So that's where I'm at. After a kick arse start to the week with a couple of effortless mornings that filled me with hope I've managed to screw it up a bit on the back half.
The thing that concerns me about this week is that obviously I expect my sleeping period to be flexible, whether that be a 6am start to go for a run or getting to bed late after a night out. These events are not uncommon in life and I think it's unreasonable to expect that I won't encounter them in the future. So what am I to do? Obviously if I get to bed late I'm going to need more sleep, so does that mean I skip the 7am wake up on occasion? The bigger problem is having to get up early on occasion, I want to be able to do this and feel good. I don't know how this will work.
It's been a rough couple of mornings. The key reason being is that I haven't been able to get to bed early enough.
Thursday was a very long day, after the run @ 6am I was already behind the 8-ball and the fact that I decided to go out on the town thursday night exacerbated matters. I didn't get to bed until 1am and 6 hrs sleep after a big day wasn't really enough.
Friday was didn't help as again I went out in the evening to see friends and didn't get to bed until after midnight.
Subsequently right now (Sat 8:40am) I'm feeling a little 'out of it' and coffee I'm drinking doesn't feel like it's picking me up as much as normal. Today will be tough. I need to get to bed before midnight tonight.
So that's where I'm at. After a kick arse start to the week with a couple of effortless mornings that filled me with hope I've managed to screw it up a bit on the back half.
The thing that concerns me about this week is that obviously I expect my sleeping period to be flexible, whether that be a 6am start to go for a run or getting to bed late after a night out. These events are not uncommon in life and I think it's unreasonable to expect that I won't encounter them in the future. So what am I to do? Obviously if I get to bed late I'm going to need more sleep, so does that mean I skip the 7am wake up on occasion? The bigger problem is having to get up early on occasion, I want to be able to do this and feel good. I don't know how this will work.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Getting up @ 7am sleep log - Day 22
I went for a run this morning. It hurt.
I got up just before 6am to meet a friend for a jog and it felt like I was back on day 2. Lethargic, slight headache, generally unpleasant.
The run and accompanied walking on my part took about an hour and I'll probably need a nap this afternoon to compensate as already at 8am I'm feeling a bit sore and tired. Perhaps I over did it.
I don't think I'll get up early again for the remainder of this experiment as it felt like everything was beginning to fall into place and if I start messing with my wake up time now I might screw it all up. The last 2 mornings have been good and I'd like to keep that up for the remaining days.
So no more early morning runs.
I got up just before 6am to meet a friend for a jog and it felt like I was back on day 2. Lethargic, slight headache, generally unpleasant.
The run and accompanied walking on my part took about an hour and I'll probably need a nap this afternoon to compensate as already at 8am I'm feeling a bit sore and tired. Perhaps I over did it.
I don't think I'll get up early again for the remainder of this experiment as it felt like everything was beginning to fall into place and if I start messing with my wake up time now I might screw it all up. The last 2 mornings have been good and I'd like to keep that up for the remaining days.
So no more early morning runs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
