Give me one month of sleep hygiene - March 2022

DAY 1: Workaholic night owl. Have a hard time going to bed at a reasonable time after a long work day. I like to "escape" watching TV and am usually up too late. Wind down needed but don't know what to do. Need to relax and turn off DAILY. Listening to some meditation music...going to bed in a few minutes after I drink some more water. We'll see how I do...hoping for restful sleep tonight.

3/11- fell asleep close to 11 and then stayed awake 1:45- 6am from the noisy ice storm . Drifted in and out 6-9, and woke up somewhat energized, so went for a 2h walk in the cold and wind midday and an hour of indoor biking in the evening.

Most people have sinus issues at season changes, but my ears are always the ones most affected. I have terrible car sickness, history of infections, hyper sensitivity to drafts, and last night I woke up with a dull ache, surely brought in by pressure change from the storm.
Now I plan to pay attention to the barometer as well- it may very well be a key answer to my nights.
Everyone is working on their puzzles I see; best of luck and good dreams!

I'm a little confused about what happened Saturday night March 12, because my wristwatch corrects the time automagically when necessary, but my bedside clock doesn't, and I'm not sure which one I looked at every time.

I went to sleep at 1:40AM, I think by the bedside clock, so not reset. I woke up later and got up, I think at 2:40, which I think must've still been the bedside clock? I got up (bathroom), went back to bed and back to sleep quickly, stayed in bed until about 9:40 (I think wristwatch, so 6 hours later?). Along the way, I woke up lots, every 60-90 minutes, went right back to sleep.

Sunday, March 13, went to sleep about 2:30AM, much too late; got up about 9:25AM. Still woke up every 60-90 minutes all night, didn't get up, went right back to sleep.

Followed all my rules about not playing with phone.

3/14 and 3/15- I’m slowly working on adding minutes to my sleep, or at the very least at the wind down time. I went to bed early last 2 nights and read or played Sudoku (the only game that makes me sleepy) , while wearing my blue light filter glasses .
Stressful things all around and allergy season is on, so any small win counts.

March 16, totally blew up my intended 12-1AM bedtime, went to sleep about 4AM. 🙄 Surprisingly long initial block of sleep until around 7:15, went right back to sleep, woke up a couple more times, got up at around 10. Could've slept longer, easily, but that tends to push the bedtime problem forward into another day. Followed all my phone-use rules/plans.

I haven't given up, though I haven't posted:

March 17: Asleep around 2:30AM, got up about 8:30AM, maybe 3 wake-ups in between.

March 18: Asleep around 3AM, got up about 8:30AM, after waking up about every 60-90 minutes during the night.

March 19: Asleep about 2:40, got up at 10, maybe 3-4 wakeups along the way.

Still not doing well with bedtimes, following my rules about avoiding getting up in the night, playing with my phone other than the AM weather/HR check right before I get up.

It's helping me in some ways, to be working at this (more daylight, less time in bed messing with my phone). Whether it will help sleep continuity, ever, is still an open question.

GabiV125 wrote: »

3/16, 3/17- my days have been busy with heavy things on my mind (can’t help or influence, just wait for the bad or worse news) so I got what I could out of my nights. Not too bad considering, (about 5h).
Yesterday I went to an indoor pool, first time in more than 2 years, and I remembered how exhausting 50 minutes can be. Years back I would have been disappointed in lack of instant results, but now I know if I could do this regularly, it will happen.
Too many moving parts at the moment to be able to pinpoint each effect to its cause, or maybe I’m not supposed to find out yet 😁.

I hear what you're saying. There are a lot of variables.

Not so much in this scenario so far, but in others, I've learned that if I stick with it, keep forming and testing hypotheses, while allowing a bit of time for each thing to settle in (i.e. not just shifting gears instantly based on a brief trial) . . . eventually, usually, I can figure out some useful strategies. Maybe not perfection, but incremental improvement.

@AnnPT77 - I couldn’t handle your sleep schedule for money- kudos to you for finding ways to come victorious in these conditions. Thank you for sharing.

I do have choice about the bedtime and get-up pieces, but the big problem for me - for years now - is the sleep interruptions. They're less sometimes than others, but I haven't found an obvious pattern in that.

Here's the thing, though: What choice do I have, but to handle it? Believe me, if there was a better alternative, I'd take it.

I felt kind of the same during cancer treatment (20+ years back): People would say "I don't think I could handle chemotherapy" or whatever. I was polite to them, but my brain was thinking "WTH? So you'd just give up, materially increase the chance of dying, like soon?!?! I don't think so."

On the sleep interruption insomnia front, I've had multiple sleep studies; I've tried various sleep meds (prescription and OTC), supplements (magnesium, melatonin, more), folkloric stuff (hot milk, aromatherapy, etc.), . . . on and on.

The thing that helped the most was hypnotherapy from a psychologist, which made the initial sleep block most nights a bit longer, maybe 3 to even 5 hours sometimes . . . a minor thing, kind of, but a pretty big improvement vs. waking up every 60-90 minutes every single night. I've been thinking I need to pull out my hypnotherapy tapes from those sessions, get them transferred to digital audio, use them again.

GabiV125 wrote: »

3/18 and 3/19- I had 4-5 sleep interruptions each night (minimum 15 minutes each) and being able to sleep in the extra hour felt wonderful. Or maybe having more daylight time in the weekend is the reason I feel better as the office has no windows. Or both.
My worst time sleep wise was when I had newborns because I have this weird block and no matter how tired I am, I’m not sleeping when is light outside. Nothing I tried tricked me - dark room, sleep mask, night routine and many many more. Any lost sleep I recover slowly and in small doses. Those months were brutal and make any bad stretch now, look like a walk in the park.

You are so right @AnnPT77 we do handle everything. Worded it wrong before, sorry.
I hope the tapes help you.

No need to apologize: I wasn't offended at all. I agree the situation kind of stinks, but what's a li'l ol' lady to do, but keep trying?

Sounds like you're sticking with working on figuring out what's going on for you, what may make improvements: That's great! I hope you'll be able to find some good solution(s)!

3/22- moderate sleep, also noticed my day was productive but quiet with not as many interruptions, so probably less stress to deal with.
3/23- should have been the same or better as we got some night rain, but my spring break child had a catch up with friends online time, way after 3am and my very light sleep suffered. I would have said something but there was so much laughter going on, I just enjoyed listening to it.
I already planned my day and spread things around to allow sitting, daydreaming, snack planning, exercise or whatever seems the answer in the moment.

I finished out March working on this and keeping notes, though I haven't posted since data for 3/24. Without adding the tedious daily detail: Time getting to sleep is still a problem - later than I'd prefer. It's like I haven't gotten back to where I was before the time change . . . or rather, that I'm staying where I was, but the clock is different, so I'm not where I want to be.

There were a couple of nights that were a true train wreck, up until 3-4AM, and one where I deviated from my "phone use during sleep time and wake-up" rules.

The later I go to sleep, it seems like, the fewer or slower the sleep interruptions happen, i.e., bigger initial block of sleep, fewer wakings per hour on average. But I don't want to stay up later to get that effect. There are always sleep interruptions, but almost always I go right back to sleep.

Generally, I'm doing well with the phone-play rules, and will keep that up. It's been beneficial.

I'm going to keep working on other sleep hygiene issues, including continuing to try to go to bed earlier, but am going to stop posting about it here.