For a while now, I’ve found myself more and more interested in sleep. It's a fascinating subject when you get into it! So eager was I to wake up feeling well rested and even wake up earlier, transforming myself into a real life ‘morning person’, that I began searching for articles on how get a better night’s sleep. Yet, instead of settling down to have a good read of them, I’d find myself saving them ‘to read later.’ It wasn’t until I came across the term ‘sleep procrastination’ that I realised that is exactly what I was doing. I love my sleep and I know I’ll feel better after a good night, yet I still put off going to bed, finding countless other things to do, often until it’s much too late to get my desired 8 hours.
Frustratingly, I always successfully set the scene for an early night; soft lighting, nice temperatures, face washed, pyjamas on - and just as I’m about to go into my bedroom I’ll stop. And think. Of anything! “I’ll just file those papers.” “I’ll just fold that laundry.” “There’s only 15 minutes left on that programme, I’ll just finish it.” That ‘one more thing’ I’ll just do turns into ten more things. That 15 minutes left on the tv turns into ‘just one more episode’ until I take myself off to bed too late to get the 8 hours I had prepared myself so perfectly for. And I go to bed annoyed at myself. And I wake up tired and grumpy and still annoyed at myself.
So, having labelled myself as a sleep procrastinator, I finally decided to make steps towards putting a stop to sleep procrastination once and for all. I dug out those saved articles and read them. I researched sleep and wrote an article for a Workplace Wellbeing company’s website. I went on a sleep retreat workshop for a day. Most recently, I purchased Matthew Walker’s bestselling book ‘Why We Sleep’ and am making my way through it, a few pages a night. All of the above have been a game changer in my quest for better sleep. Doing my sleep homework and realising how harmful too little sleep actually is for our physical and emotional wellbeing has made me all the more determined to make a more serious effort at changing my unhealthy sleep habits.
And the verdict? Have I put a stop to my sleep procrastination? Not entirely, no. But I am a work in progress. It takes time to rewire our brain to change habits and this habit has been hanging around for quite some time now. I’m pleased to say I do have nights in my week when I turn out the light at the time I had planned to. When I leave the screens out of the bedroom and read a non fiction book instead. When I do ten or fifteen minutes of yoga before bed. And I still wake feeling tired, but not as tired as after a measly 6 hours of sleep. I definitely find the work day easier and I approach tasks with a more positive attitude. There are tips I learned that I have yet to experiment and I’m looking forward to trying them out. I know there are other people out there going through the same thing I am (I can’t be the only one!) and who, like me want to finally change their sleep habits. So tune in next week where I will explain the harm we are doing to ourselves when we don’t sleep enough and I’ll also share my top sleep tips, some of which begin the minute you wake up!
Please share if you, too, are a sleep procrastinator or have any other sleep habits you think it's time you addressed!
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