Sleep Makeover Update: Week Six

So a month and a half ago I started this sleep makeover hoping I would eventually get to 7 hours of sleep a night and a much earlier bedtime. Well this week, in addition to sharing where I am now, I thought I'd do a little before-and-after comparison:

• Before: Averaging 5 hours a night. Now: 7.07 hours (score!)
• Before: Average bedtime of whenever I fell asleep (usually around 2-3am). Now: 12:30am on average. Not exactly where I want to be (I'm aiming for 11pm) but much, much closer.
• Before: Sleepy and grouchy almost every day. Now: Not sleepy during the day anymore, and (usually) not grouchy :)

Honestly, I feel so much better since I've started sleeping better. I'm still not a morning person, but I don't fight getting up as much anymore, with the exception of when it's really cold outside. I don't feel as irritable, and I don't eat as much junk food during the day. Okay, I eat some junk food, but not as much. And now, I'm wondering how well I could do if I started aiming for 8 hours a night. New goal, anybody?

Weekly bedroom pic: this is another one from the former Domino website (rest in peace). I originally saved it because I LOVED how they arranged the pictures over the bed. I only hope one of these days to be able to do a casual-but-still-balanced picture arrangement like that. I also really love the bird on the pillows and the cool lamp next to the bed. What do you all think?

Alright, readers, tell me: how do you sleep normally? Am I crazy to aim for 8 hours?

As always, you can read the rest of my sleep makeover posts here.

Sleep Makeover Update: Week Five

Okay so my Thursday sleep makeover post is a bit late today because I (ironically) slept in this morning and didn't get anything done before work. And I'm putting it in bullet form because it's not really coherent enough to make paragraphs.

• My first week back in classes after break, and I got *drumroll* 6.7 hours a night! So close to my goal of 7, but not quite there. That's also an hour per night less than last week, but last week I didn't have any classes.
• It's also almost an hour per night more than when I started the makeover- a huge improvement.
• I've decided that one of the things that really helps me most is switching off the computer and tv well before I go to bed. When I'm up on the computer right before bed, I have a much harder time getting to sleep.
• I've realized that I'm a complete scaredy cat. Every single bump or creak in the night wakes me up and has me convinced that someone is definitely breaking into my apartment, and then I get too creeped out to sleep. Which is bad when you live in an old apartment building with 7 other tenants (lots of bumps and creaks).
• White noise really helps drown out the scary bumps in the night.
• I still suck at going to bed early, and I don't even know why I find it so difficult. My average bedtime is now about 1am, which is actually a 2 hour improvement from when I started, but still isn't early enough. I'm aiming for midnight by my next update :) Wish me luck!
• I don't feel as energetic as I did last week- all the more incentive to get back up to 7 hours a night!
  

PS: What do you think of the bedroom above? I'm actually kind of digging the tree branch headboard thing they've got going on there. Not sure what I think about what appears to be a grasshopper hobby horse. But I love the overall natural feel- nature always makes me feel relaxed (all the more reason to get flowers!).

As always, you can read the rest of the sleep makeover posts here.

Sleep Makeover Update: Week Four

via Domino

Well it's sleep makeover makeup time. To recap, last week (during finals) was the first week I saw real progress, getting very close to my goal of 7 hours on average. Aaaaand this week...

I did it! I got 7.07 hours of sleep on average.

Of course, I am on spring break, which makes it a lot easier to get sleep. And the bad news is that while I slept more, I still struggled with going to bed any earlier than 1am. But still, this is progress, right?

Next week will be a bit of a test because not only do I work early part of the week, but I have morning classes too. No late mornings here! But I don't think it will be too bad- if anything, it will force me to go to bed and get up more consistently, which should help.

I also have some more incentive now: sleep makes me feel great!

• I get lots more done during the day, so I feel more accomplished.
• I have more energy to work out and I'm not downing sugar to stay awake, so I feel healthier.
• I know that sleeping puts me in a much better mood now :)
• AND- remember when I brought up the acne/insomnia link a couple weeks ago? Well, my skin has looked a lot better lately! That's not necessarily what I started this sleep makeover for, but it's such a huge bonus since my skin has been stubbornly bad lately. I'm so excited by it!

We'll see how next week goes when I'm back to being a responsible adult and getting up in the mornings.

You can see the rest of my sleep makeover posts here.

PS: I know you all like canopies, but what about more alternative headboards? I think the yellow canvas on the one above is super cool.

Sleep Makeover Update: Week Three

I'm very excited this week because I can actually report progress with the sleep makeover. :)

You'll remember it wasn't going too well last week when I got an average of only 5.4 hrs of sleep a night with a 2am bedtime. Well the good news is that the stats have gone up, way up: 6.7 hours of sleep a night on average! I got at least 7 hours on every night but two- Tuesday I just could NOT fall asleep and last night I had an exam to study for. The time I went to bed didn't improve a ton to be honest, and I still went to sleep around 1:30am on average. But it's a half-hour improvement and I was very close to the 7 hours a night I wanted, so I won't complain.

I can already tell that there is a huge difference between my well-rested self and my sleep-deprived self. I'm a lot more grouchy when I'm sleep deprived (like today) and I eat a lot more junk food, too (I'm eating a PB&J right now). My well-rested self is so much happier, that alone is worth it, not to mention that I had more energy to do healthy things this week like cook actual meals (vs. mac 'n cheese) and work out. So while I still have lots of progress to make (especially in the time of night I go to bed), I can see how this would benefit me a lot if it became a consistent thing. So that's my motivation for the week ahead.

Next week is spring break for me so I get to relax with NO classes. Though I know I'll probably stay out late a few nights with friends, my goal for the week ahead is to go to bed earlier overall. Especially since in a week and some days I will start in with morning classes almost every day of the week *duh duh duh*, so I want to be prepared for those. And since it's spring break, I don't really have an excuse for being sleep deprived, right?

Also, I haven't seen any improvement in my skin due to getting more sleep. If anything, I'm breaking out now more than ever. Guess I have to be patient, huh?

PS: For all you canopy (or faux-canopy) lovers out there, I found this picture on the Domino website. I love how big and bright the room looks thanks to the gigantic mirror and light fabric. Also, loving how the canopy looks like clouds. What says you?

Sleep Makeover Update: Week Two

So I might as well come right out and say it: the sleep makeover is going terribly. This is the week before final exams for me and I have had so much to do. That coupled with stress means that this week I got even LESS sleep than last week.

My stats: 5.4 hours of sleep a night (0.4 hrs/night less than last week) and an average bedtime of, wait for it, 2am (a half-hour later than last week). The earliest I've gone to sleep this week has been 12:30am and that was when I had to get up at 6am. Crud.

At this point in time it seems I might just have to schedule things better. I have a lot to do: full-time classes, two jobs (though one is only a few hours a week), usually a couple hours of volunteering, and this blog. Plus time to make meals, do chores, and actually relax, which is a priority for me. And I know, I know, sleep should be a priority too. So this next week my only goal is managing time better so I'm NOT working until 2 o'clock in the morning every night. Next week is final exams so we'll see what happens.

I feel like a Debbie Downer now, but I really do think this sleep makeover will work out in the end. I just didn't know it would be so much more difficult than the spending hiatus- you'd think staying away from shopping would be harder than sleeping. Who knew? Any advice from you awesome sleepers out there? Or, you know, any fellow insomniacs are totally invited to commiserate.

In related news: Petra over at Glamour wrote this blog post about how lack of sleep may contribute to acne. The link is apparently cortisol, the stress hormone, which surges when you don't get enough sleep and which can exacerbate acne. Well crud. Maybe that's why I'm breaking out constantly right now, despite washing my face every day.

PS: I've figured while I'm obsessing over sleep, I might as well include some pictures of bedrooms I love. This one (above) is in my "white bedrooms I love but can't have thanks to my black cat and talent for spilling things" file. How cool is the striped "canopy" above the bed?

You can check out the other two sleep makeover posts here.

Image via the Domino website.

Sleep Makeover Update: Week One

Intense wallpaper and a four poster bed. So cool.

Last week I admitted that I was sleeping terribly and something needed to be done. So I proposed a Sleep Makeover, with the goal of getting 7 hours of sleep a night, every night. And how'd it go?

Well, about that.

It turns out it's not as easy as I thought. Going to bed at 11pm, for example, does not guarantee that I will fall asleep at 11pm. I might still, in fact, fall asleep at 2am regardless of when I go to bed. Frustrating, right?

The stats behind my week (because I love me some stats): I slept a total of 40.75 hours the whole week for an average of 5.8 hours a night. Ouch. More than an hour of sleep less than I wanted per night.

I feel like my main issue is that my body doesn't want to go to sleep earlier. Despite the earlier bedtime, the approximate time at which I actually fell asleep was 1:30am. An improvement over 2-3am which is what I was doing before, but still. So this week my goals are a little bit different: I'm less concerned with my hours of sleep and more focused on gradually making my bedtime earlier and more consistent. And we'll see how it goes!

Image from the Domino website, because I'm obsessed with beds.

I need a sleep makeover.

Looks like Heaven.

This post is incredibly late in the day, I know. I try to post earlier in the morning but I was too tired today to get it together.

To be honest, I've been having trouble sleeping lately. My sleep schedule is so off: during the week I might have to get up at 6am (for work) or 10am (for class). I know that you're supposed to go to bed and wake up at the same time, but has anyone actually tried to get up at 6am even when they don't have to? I'm not a morning person, mind you. It's just not happening.

That said, I do think the wonky sleeping schedule is messing with me, and I've only been getting 5, maybe 6 hours of sleep a night. And I'm tired. So I'm proposing a sleep makeover- I'm going to try and sleep at least 7 hours a night, and I'm going to try and make my bedtimes and wake times a little more consistent. And I figured since this blog has held me accountable in the past (see the spending hiatus) maybe it will work for this too.

So Thursdays from now on will be sleep makeover days (appropriate, since for whatever reason I usually get the least amount of sleep on Wednesday nights). Each Thursday I'll tell you all how I'm doing, and I'll let you know what my goals are for the next week. I'll do it for a month, and we'll see what happens :)

My goals for the next week: 7 hours a night, that's the big one. I'm aiming to be in bed by 11pm and up at 6am on days I work, and be in bed by midnight and up at 7-8am on days I don't. I know that's not a perfect schedule, but it's a pretty good start for me.

Anybody have any sleep-better advice? When do you all go to bed and how many hours do you usually get to sleep?

PS: Remember this post where I was so tired I kept obsessing over beds? I still do that. I really want a gorgeous white bed with a pretty canopy like the one above.

Image via the Domino website.