Anthony's 30 Day Trials

So, I started writing this for this Tumblr, but it kind of got geeky. So I posted to my main blog, Home Automation Geek. Check it out here:

http://homeautomationgeek.com/geeky-tools-hack-sleep/

Sunday Night (10/2/11)

The weekend yet again proves to be a challenge, although certainly not as bad as last weekend. I’m definitely getting better at getting up and waking up, but there are still challenges. Here are the biggest issues I’ve identified… in countdown order (ooh, exciting!)

#3. Getting out of bed. Being woken up at 6am is one thing. Getting out of the bed and doing stuff is a completely different matter. It’s much easier when I have something to do, and when I have had a good night of sleep. Neither of those things are a sure thing (yet), so to further remedy the situation, I’ve put my alarm across the room, starting last night.

Classic solution.

Unfortunately in the past, it’s been of minimal success since I end up just bouncing out of bed to stop the alarm, then jumping right back. But I’m more hopeful this time around … since my alarm is a Wakemate app on my phone, I think my chances of successare dramatically improved (more about the app in a later post).

#2. Having something to do once I’m awake. Phrased another way: staying out of bed. I haven’t yet set up a routine to go through once I’m out of bed. The original intention was that I didn’t want to start layering structure into this until I’d mastered the actual waking up, but I’m starting to realize that was a mistake. It’s much more manageable to wake up when it’s for a purpose other than purely for the sake of waking up. 

Short term solution: first thing I’m going to do once I get out of bed is to hop into the shower. Not only will that help wake me up, but it’ll keep me out of bed (sleeping with wet hair is a BAD idea, unless I want to look like a complete loon).

#1. Getting to bed early enough.  This has been the toughest one for me. Even though I’ve been really tired at around 10:00, I still don’t get to bed until 12:30 or 1. This is a big issue because not getting to bed early enough means trouble when it comes to waking up, and being tired throughout the day otherwise. Sometimes it’s because I have too much going on in my head. Or sometimes I’m working on something. Or watching a movie. Or chatting with people. Or wasting time on Youtube (or a more recent habit, Facebook). 

Maybe it’s time to let go of that, and embrace doing all that crap (or something else) sometime else in the day. 

Has it really been a week since I decided to do this? 

I’m still in the adjustment period. Some days it’s a breeze getting up at 6, and other days (like today)I could barely keep my eyes open. How long does it take to actually get used to this?

I should go bed earlier. 5 to 5.5 hours per night isn’t really cutting it. Or more specifically, I should start getting ready to go to bed earlier…by the time I realize I should be in bed it’s too late.  

Saturday Night (9/24/11)

Sooo… Saturday night was a spectacular failure on the sleep front. Long story short: I went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Now I expected to be out late, but we ended up staying out until 4 (ah, NYC bars) and I didn’t get to bed until about 5am. Oops. 

So obviously I didn’t wake up at 6am on Sunday morning.

The funny thing with me and alcohol is that it usually makes me wake up bright and early (like 5am) feeling refreshed. A quick caveat: this only happens when I have enough to a get a pleasant buzz, but not hangover-inducing. In this case though, since I was going to sleep at such an odd hour, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at around 10:30am. I also crashed and took a 40ish minute nap on the train home in the afternoon.

So. What to do about the trial. Do I need to start over or something?

Well, not this time. The goal for me is habit change, not perfection. While I’m a little disappointed about tripping up this early on, I learned something (it’s okay to be the weirdo and enforce bedtime…plus who stays out until 5am regularly?). Psychologically speaking it would also be disheartening to have to start over after the (little) progress I’ve made so far. But…since this was such a fantastic trip-up, I’m tacking an extra day on so it’s now a 31-day trial :) 

Sunday Night (9/25/11)

Ah, back to the normal routine. I was pretty exhausted all Sunday, so I passed out at about 10:30. Waking up wasn’t bad but I had trouble getting out of bed. The weekend probably had something to do with it, but I felt absolutely awful this morning, complete with cold-like symptoms (who knows what it is though). 

The most notable thing about today (Monday) though was all the people at work who talked to me about this 30-Day trial. I originally decided to make this a public trial because I wanted more accountability so I could follow through. But I didn’t quite expect it to get so up-front and personal. I kind of envisioned people commenting on my wall, not in real life. 

But it’s a good thing. I can discuss things with people, and it’s kind of funny how they coalesced into an informal support group. And I know that everyone is watching, so I’m much less likely to give up (or risk making a complete ass of myself). 

Three days in and still going strong. That’s 10% completion of the trial :)

The most surprising thing so far is that I’m not significantly more tired than usual, especially at night. My midday slumps may have gotten more pronounced but I can’t tell if that’s because of residual jetlag, dietary choices, or this sleep experiment. If nothing else, waking up earlier (and not changing my sleep time) seems to have improved the quality of my sleep.

The most challenging part, by far, is dragging myself out of bed and staying out, especially when I don’t absolutely HAVE to be up and about. Thats mostly due to the mindset I have about longer sleep = better sleep (not true) and just sheer habit.

It was hardest today (Saturday) because I normally sleep in. While I am doing this trial because I want to use the extra time productively, for now I’m committing to just being awake. If that means playing video games at 6am, so be it :)

I’ll layer in some structure later on, probably in another 30 day trial.

I normally get up at about 7:30 and then laze around until 8 before finally hauling my ass out of bed.

So today when the alarm went off at 6, it was a rude awakening in a more literal sense of the phrase. I was tempted to grab a cup of coffee once I finished showering, but I began to think otherwise.

I thought: Instead of injecting myself with stimulants to simulate a good night’s rest, I should let my body naturally find its equilibrium. So I might be really tired earlier than normal today (which will probably will be at around 10 … I normally go to bed at about 12:30-1), but it means I’ll get a better-than-average night of sleep. 

So I’m adding a new condition to the trial:

4. No caffeine. 

Honestly it’s not that big of a deal… I don’t drink coffee that much and I really reserve it for “emergency” situations (i.e. 4 hours of sleep prior to a presentation I have to make at work). But I think keeping it out of the picture (as a crutch) will help expedite the process.

I’m feeling good about this so far. I had a few moments of tiredness this afternoon, but I was mostly okay with keeping up my focus throughout the day. 

We’ll see how well tomorrow goes! 

Here are the conditions of the trial…

1. Wake up at 6am every day. Weekends included.
2. No snoozing allowed. 
3. No napping.

This is going to be a fun one. See you tomorrow morning. 

From this day forward, I am keeping a live blog of my thirty day trials. I’ve never completed a 30-day trial yet, so hopefully your following me will keep me accountable. 

I have a ton of habits I want to install (and bad habits I want to get rid of), and it’s high time I did something about it.

First up: waking up at 6am every day. 

(Source: stevepavlina.com)