As an avid purveyor of proper amounts of sleep, one of the prime difficulties is ensuring I am getting the necessary hours. It’s not enough that I block out the eight hours per night, because we really don’t fall asleep immediately, do we? Unless of course we are damn tired from a hard day, but those are thankfully few and far in between.
What usually happens is I would spend about 10 to 15 minutes after getting to bed trying to fall asleep. And that’s on a good day. Some nights it takes what feels like an interminably long time before I enter into sleep. The problem usually compounds, because I would get frustrated that I’m not falling asleep fast enough. I’m going to miss my eight hour target! That frustration of course would then further prevent me from going to sleep.
A vicious cycle!
So what I’ve done these days is allocate time for that period of trying to fall asleep. For my optimal eight hours of sleep, I would block out nine hours of actual in-bed time. It’s a win-win: if I enter sleep quickly, I get the benefit of an extra hour of slumber. If I struggle to fall asleep, I have about an hour of buffer before it actually affects my optimal sleep. No need to get frustrated: I’ll fall asleep eventually and it’ll still be alright.
Obviously, this is predicated on me actually going to bed at the appropriate hour. Too many potential distractions out there: twitter, Youtube, TV, and video games. It takes discipline for sure. If you’re the type to burn the proverbial candle late into the night, this sleep hack of mine isn’t going to work for you.
Unless you don’t have a job to go to the following morning!
BART and you’re there.