Tricking myself into better habits

For pretty much as long as I can remember, I have had sleep issues.

I have noticed that many people don't take sleep issues seriously. They think it is simple: just get in bed and go to sleep and when the alarm goes off just wake up. If it were that easy me and millions of others in the world wouldn't be able to tell you about late-night infomercials and Lunesta, Ambien, and other sleep aids wouldn't be on the market. It's just not that simple. It really isn't.

It is very, very easy for me to stay up late, and even more difficult for me to wake up early (unless I have someplace I need to be, like an appointment or class). And, since most of my graduate school experience has not involved a 9-5 daily commitment, my ability to get and stay on a normal sleep schedule has suffered. When I talked to my doctor about my depression I also talked about my problems sleeping (at that time I wasn't falling asleep until about 5am and then found it hard to wake up before noon, go figure). I was given sleeping pills, which I have tried using, but I don't think that is the way for me to change.

The way I see it, there are two parts to this problem:
1. I am not going to sleep at a time that is conducive to getting a good night's rest
2. I am not waking up at a time that is conducive to having a productive day

The two parts are inextricably linked, and changing one can change the other, but it is difficult.

I realized that night-time was when I watched TV. I would try taking a sleeping pill at 11 and then decide to watch the late show, then the late late show, then staggering to bed at 1:30am. So, in order to fight this I bought a timer from the hardware store and set it so it automatically turns the TV off at 10pm every night. It is my not-so-subtle reminder that it is time to get off the couch and get ready for bed.

Also, to keep myself from watching TV online all night (which I have done on more than one occasion) I put my Netflix account on hold and set restrictions on how many hours a day I could watch online TV with the firefox add-on Leechblock . I find myself doing many other things online, though, so I am looking into whether I can block the use of my web browsers at specific times as well.

Ideally, I would like to lay down with a book and read a chapter or so before gently drifting off to sleep. I am working on this plan. Sometimes I end up reading half the novel before feeling tired, but sometimes not.

My morning ritual is a little more drastic, and has not really worked well.

I used to have 3 alarm clocks, all of which were within arm's reach, and one of them was my cell phone. The alarms would start going off and I would either turn them off or hit the snooze button for 2-3 hours. That wasn't a good sleep habit.

Now, I still have the 3 alarm clocks. One is next to my bed, which goes off first and I can hit the snooze on a couple of times. The second has been moved to the shelf next to the door at the foot of my bed, so when it goes off, I have to get up and turn it off (which I do, no snooze, just off). The third alarm clock is my cell phone, which I have in a little box on a shelf. On the box is a little lock, and the key to the lock is by the door to the apartment. So, when the cell phone alarm rings, I have to get up, walk across the entire apartment, get the key, and bring it back to free my phone from it's nightly prison. One would think all that would work.

But, it doesn't.

I walk to the key on the wall, retrieve the phone, and bring it back to bed with me where I snooze for an hour (which, considering I used to snooze for 2-3 hours, it is sort of an improvement).

I figure I have to combine the alarms with something I know wakes me up: morning commitments. I have been purposefully setting up appointments for the morning hours, in hopes that if I can get at least 4-5 days of consistently waking up early, everything will start falling into place.

Monday I am meeting with someone at the Career Center to help me get my job search more organized, and then starting a regular weekly morning appointment with the writing center to help with my dissertation.

Tuesday is my regular morning writing date with DancingFish and Snex

Wednesday will hopefully be the day I go to the eye doctor for new glasses

Thursday and Friday are still open, but I was thinking about trying to get to school by 8am so I can get a free parking spot on the street and spend some quality time in the library.

Hopefully this will start to work. I don't expect to be falling asleep at 10pm and waking up singing with bluebirds at 6am by the end of the week, but if I can manage to be up and dressed and out of the house by 9am, I think it will be an accomplishment.

And, since it is 1am and I have a meeting in the morning, I should stop blathering on now. Sweet dreams.