I’ll just catch up on my sleep right? That’s what I always thought I’d do every weekend. I would drag through each Monday through Friday and savor the fact that most Saturdays and Sundays I would sleep in. That was all fine and good until I recently learned that you can’t catch up on sleep. My brilliant plan to catch up on sleep had crumbled beneath me.
With each article I read, my disappointment grew. I couldn’t believe how many “rules” I broke regularly. Here are some examples of how bad I am.
Observation: even when you sleep extra time to catch up after sleeping 6 hours a night for many nights, your reaction time and focus is worse than if you stayed up all night.
Me: I average less than 6 hours on weeknight most of the time.
Observation: you should never sleep 2 or more hours on top of your normal sleep schedule when you sleep in.
Me: On weekends and days off, I’ll sleep 3 to 4 hours longer than my normal wake up time during the week.
Observation: you should never exercise within 2 hours before going to sleep.
Me: I’m ok here if you count going to bed routinely after 1am.
Observation: light from computer monitors tricks your body into thinking its daytime, suppressing the natural production of melatonin.
Me: I work almost every night at the computer.
Observation: lack of sleep will cause irritability, hinder memorization, concentration, and motivation.
Me: Yes.
I reflected on my own sleep patterns and concluded that like many other people, I simply don’t get enough sleep. Even worse, I’ve been maintaining my current sleeping pattern for several years. Ouch!
Recently, FitTrend has added new feature that allows users to log and report on sleep. I’ve added the last 10 days of sleep to my journal. Although its only 10 days, I believe its a good sample of what my current sleeping pattern is.
So how do I go about changing my pattern that I’ve maintained for so long? I’ll start with what I want to achieve. I want my sleep to be more predictable, eventually showing a flatter graph instead of a seesaw pattern.
I’ve learned that working on any personal change requires planning and gradual change. So my personal plan is as such:
- gradually bring my bed time back to 11pm at the latest most days of the week
- try to get 7-8 hours a night even on the weekends
- avoid eating snacks near bedtime
- avoid exercising after 9:30pm
So how will I know if its working? I will use FitTrend to watch my progress over time using a report similar to above to see my daily, weekly, and monthly progress.
I’ll try to follow my rules over the next 2 months. If you want to try and change or improve the quality of your sleep, use FitTrend to track your progress.
