Remember, for April I decided to work on my evening/bed time routine as I felt I wasn’t getting enough sleep during the week and was often tired in the mornings.
My alarm goes off at 5:45 a.m. and I was hardly making it to bed by 11 p.m. the first couple of months of the year. So, in order to get a decent amount of sleep, I reset my preferred time for “lights out” to 10:30 p.m. for April. I also tried to implement a few “rules” in order to help me get to bed at that very reasonable time. Here’s how it went:
1.Turn of the computer by 9 p.m. This hasn’t been too big of an issue for me. The computer has been off way before 9 p.m. lately (unless maybe once or twice when I tried to finish a blog post). I can’t say the same for my iPhone though. I really check it right until I go to bed (and set my alarm). Oh well. Baby steps.
2. Get ready for bed when I turn of the computer or at 9 p.m. This has been an on and off success during the last four weeks. Some nights, I was in my PJ’s right on time, sometimes I wasn’t. Meh.
3. Be in bed by 9:45 p.m. I haven’t been consistent enough with this. I have had way too many excuses why I had to ‘finish the TV show’, ‘do one more thing’, or ‘organize my purse’, and such. I am really good at finding excuses if I don’t want to go to bed. Also, knowing that I wouldn’t turn of the lights until 10:30 p.m. anyway, felt like I had a buffer that I could exploit. Defeats the purpose. I know.
4. Turn off the light by 10:30 p.m. I am happy to say that more often than not, I did turn of the lights by 10:30 p.m. There were a few nights where I didn’t quite make it, but I am trying to not beat myself up about it.
When it comes down to it, I did good overall. Most nights, lights were turned off at 10:30 p.m. (with a few exceptions). That was really the main goal and I accomplished that.
However, I didn’t really take my evening routine serious enough when it comes to preparing for a restful 7.5 hour-sleep. I still had mornings where I felt overwhelmingly tired. I also had mornings where I felt good and energetic. So, what do I do? Can I improve this or is this just a fact of life (because every day the amount of stress is different)? I don’t know, because it seems to go between the need for a lot of sleep and very little sleep and everything in between. It’s hard to figure out.
One thing my evening routine hasn’t changed though is that I still slept a lot on the weekends. I mean, easily 10-hours-a-lot. Maybe, after all, it’s normal to sleep more on the weekends? Come on, tell me that it is! We sleep more because we can! Well, at least I can (for the most part). I know that you guys with (little) kids probably curse me for that right now. I am sorry. Just a little.
What was your goal for April? Were you successful in achieving that goal?
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Come join us over at 12 changes in 2012
Melissa
May 2, 2012 at 5:46 amI think overall you were quite successful, it’s just a work in progress in terms of how you feel waking up. You’re still trying out what works! Don’t beat yourself up about not having a 100% success rate, I think you did extremely well. :)
Chrissy
May 2, 2012 at 6:32 amWell, I think you did awesome! I had a similar goal but wasn’t quite that successful. There are still too many nights when I don’t get t bed before 11 pm. It’s weird though, sometimes I feel like the longer I sleep the grumpier and tired I am the next morning. ha xxx
Maribeth
May 2, 2012 at 7:28 amMy goal was to be more active. And I have. I get up, and once Jack is awake and in his chair, I make the bed right up. I cook breakfast, clean that right up and then plan the other meals. I also try to be in bed by 9:45 at night. I usually am, but fall almost instantly asleep.
Ti
May 2, 2012 at 7:45 amI have ALWAYS been anti-going-to-bed. As a child, I would leave bed and fall asleep in the living room. That’s where everyone else was and I didn’t want to miss anything by falling asleep! So I couldn’t fall asleep. Unless I was situated where I would know if something worthwhile happened. I am still that way. I don’t like to go to bed before the husband does. I will… but I don’t like it.
Elly
May 2, 2012 at 8:01 amI always find that if I’ve had a big day exercising wise, then I’m in bed relatively early and I generally wake up feeling more awake. I know it’s not really feasible as an everyday habit-forming solution, but I found it interesting :)
lauryn
May 2, 2012 at 9:21 amIt sounds like you’ve at least made a lot of progress toward your goals! You’ll start to figure out over time what works for you and what doesn’t, and as long as you’re happy and feeling positive most of the time then I think you’ve been successful :)
Travel Spot
May 2, 2012 at 9:25 amI would call this a win. Like you said, it takes baby steps to get to where you are trying to go. So you are doing great!
Nilsa @ SoMi Speaks
May 2, 2012 at 1:20 pmSounds to me like having that 9:45 goal in your mind helped you to turn the lights out by 10:30, even if you weren’t always in bed as planned.
We are an early to bed, early to rise family during the week. One thing that helps us prepare for bed is getting ready for the next day right after dinner. Sweets sets up the coffee maker and organizes his biking stuff. I put together my lunch and make sure my purse and keys are in their spot. Then, we are able to relax for a few hours before bed … making the bedtime and morning routine less complicated and less frantic.
Alyx
May 2, 2012 at 4:52 pmMan, I need to take some of these tips from you, because i am SO BAD at getting to bed at a decent hour – it’s ridiculous!
Loulou
May 2, 2012 at 7:13 pmGood for you on this! Do you find that you feel better over-all having a more disciplined bedtime? I imagine you must.
Loulou
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
May 3, 2012 at 4:35 amMy body will no longer let me sleep in on the weekend. :( I used to sleep 9-11 hours on Sunday mornings. Not anymore. I wake up at 7. Which is good right now because I have to get 6-7 hours of studying in on Sunday, but it’s annoying.
I didn’t have a specific goal for April – I mostly wanted to finish my CFA materials, and I did. :)
erin
May 3, 2012 at 7:51 amYou did great! Little changes are what starts a revolution! Pretty soon you will be the healthiest, self-loving person I know!
Holly
May 3, 2012 at 12:00 pmI’m glad that you were able to keep with some of the “rules” (?) for your goal in April. It is so hard to get on a set sleeping schedule (for me, at least), so good for you! :) I seem to need a lot of sleep, so I feel ya on sleeping as much as you possibly can on the weekends.
Hopefully you will start to feel more refreshed after EVERY night instead of just some! :)
Steffi
May 3, 2012 at 9:44 pmI get up at 20 past 5, half past 5 during the week. I go to bed at 10, quarter past 10.
Most of the days I am sticking to that. If there is a really good movie on I may stay up longer.
On the weekends I set my alarm for 8 to have as much from my day as possible. :-) Don’t want to miss a second of my days. I usually go to bed around 11 on the weekends.
Viv
May 6, 2012 at 1:47 amIt sounds like you did quite well. I have been pretty bad about going to bed on time lately, sometimes only getting 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night.
terra
May 6, 2012 at 3:21 pmI keep myself plugged in with my iPhone too. Turning off the computer is easy, but it’s not easy for me to step away from twitter, or facebook or email or whatever on my iPhone. It’s my alarm clock, so it basically just goes to bed with me.
I can always sleep a lot on the weekends and I think I get enough sleep during the week so I think we can safely assume that we sleep on the weekends because we can.