HollyKing's Journal

For the last few years I've had intermittent bouts of insomnia. I'll go for a few weeks with only a couple hours of sleep a night. After I lost my job last September it didn't affect me too much because it was easy enough to sleep later or take the random nap when I was tired. The problem was I shifted my schedule to sleep from 2am until 11am or later. Now that I'm working at Intel that schedule doesn't really work for me. Sleeping for a just two hours doesn't bother me, spending the day in a thick haze like I did today is unacceptable.

So I spent some free time researching methods to change my sleep schedule today. I found a good article by Steve Pavlina called How to Become an Early Riser that looks very promising. According to Steve, and several other bloggers, the key is to get up at the same time every day, even off days. The other part of the equation is to go to sleep when you're tired and not before. Some days we need more sleep than others. So going to sleep at a fixed time means you would get too much sleep some nights and not enough on others.

I've been paying more attention to my own sleep patterns and results and, for me, these are excellent suggestions. Some times I just can't sleep and others I can't seem to get enough. Another problem I've discovered with sleeping for me is the snooze button. If I just get up with the alarm I am much more alert and functional during the day. On those mornings that I hit the snooze button I don't really get any rest in those extra seven minutes and I never feel like I'm fully awake during the day. In fact, if I wake up at all within an hour of the alarm I have a fuzzy day.

So taking the advice of Mr. Pavlina and others I've outlined a few changes to my schedule that I hope will make a positive impact. My plan involves:

1. Go to sleep when I feel tired in the evening. Instead of trying to force myself to sleep I'll just accept the days where I'm awake and spend the extra time working on some projects.
2. Set the alarm for 6am and get up when the alarm sounds. No hitting the snooze button or sleeping in. On those mornings I don't have to go to work I can use the time to work on a project.
3. With the extra time in the mornings I will eat breakfast every day and walk at least a few times each week. My goal is to walk at least 30 minutes every day. With the iPod I listen to some podcasts during the walk instead of just sitting at my desk and listening to them.

I've been really thinking about self-improvement the past few days. It's easy to see that I was in a fog of depression the last few months but now that I've made it through I want to ride this crest of excitement and enthusiasm and keep the momentum going. One part of my plan is to write about what I'm doing and the forward, or backward, progress I'm making. I know I've said it before but I've never claimed to be perfect. I just try to move in the right direction.

Stay tuned for my next post tentatively titled How May I Help You?