Morning has broken

Day 8 of my first habit, attempting to get better and more regular sleep, and my first weekend in my attempt. A few hurdles I'll have to overcome in order to achieve this goal are:

• Staying up late on weekends while hanging out with friends
• Resisting the urge to sleep in upon going to bed too late
• Still, actually getting out of bed at a reasonable hour.

A partial solution to my problems may be simply looking at my schedule for the next few days and figuring out when I might be up late and plan around it. Another hurdle: as painful as it is for me to say good by to my boyfriend earlier on Sunday and drive the two hours back to Lansing, it is absolutely necessary for me to do so at an hour earlier than 8:30 p.m. to make my bedtime a reasonable one. Not to mention all the perishables I need to get each Sunday to make it through the week, decompressing from the drive, and catching dinner. All of these things are important to do on Sundays, and arriving home at nearly 11 p.m. does not help my goals.

While getting groceries yesterday evening, however, I did stop and get a light timer. A friend had suggested it as a way to wake up in a more "natural" way to an artificial sun. Upon going to bed last night I set the timer to "rise" at 6:30 a.m., and my emergency back-up alarm to go off at 7:30. When my emergency back-up alarm went off, I awoke, a little disoriented and confused as to why I was in a room with the light on. Quickly remembering where I was, I moved out of my bed to turn off the alarm. Unlike other mornings, I didn't feel such a strong urge to crawl back into bed. Perhaps there is something to the light-alarm, or perhaps it was because I had about an hour to get ready for work, but either way the effiency of the light alarm remains to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

In pondering my other issues, mainly staying out with friends too late, I may consider taking naps before going out with friends so I can continue to wake up at the same time each morning without feeling too tired the following day. Part of my inclination to sleep in upon staying up late is my partiality to getting at least 7 hours of sleep. However, as a more regular sleep pattern emerges, I've been told that the body will stay in it's groove when your pattern is interrupted, and naturally awake at that time. Everyone is different, though. We'll see how it goes!

Until next time,

Melissa