\r\nThis was written January 02, 2025<\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\nIntroduction<\/h2>\r\n
As mentioned in a recent update<\/a>, I’m planning work on myself through the\r\nimplementation of better and healthier habits. There are many\r\naspects to consider: how to track and complete tasks and errands, finding ways to\r\nconsistently study and work on projects despite a more constrained schedule,\r\nhaving a better diet, doing more exercise, etc…<\/p>\r\n\r\n But in order to maximize my chances of success, I should prioritize what’s\r\nmost critical. In this case, what’s more important than sleep?\r\nIf you don’t sleep well, it impacts everything else. Energy\r\nis low, concentration is poor, motivation is lackluster, even health starts suffering.\r\nThis is why I plan to first attempt to improve my sleep.<\/p>\r\n\r\n So what’s the plan? Well, there are a few avenues I can explore. The main areas I can\r\nthink of are:\r\n \r\nWhile sleep quality is harder to approach in some instances (E.g.: If\r\nit’s a health issue, or if I need to purchase items), there are still many things\r\nI can do to improve my sleep.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nObviously, the first thing I can control is my sleeping schedule and its\r\nconsistency. Currently, I’m often rather lazy when it comes to bed time, \r\noften procrastinating ad-nauseum before heading to bed, despite knowing\r\nwhat would be best for myself. Sometimes it takes the form of idling watching\r\nvideos or shows, sometimes in the form of chatting with others, and sometimes\r\nit’s simply wanting to relax a bit after work. But most of it stems from a lack\r\nof discipline on my part. Consequently, I should institute a clearly defined sleep\r\nschedule I abide by. According to my work constraints (and the current iteration of my\r\nschedule), I plan on having the following bedtimes:\r\n \r\nBut what about Saturday? Well…I sometimes plan late-night events with friend in\r\nNorth America, since that’s usually the most sensible time (due to the time differences).\r\nThus, it might be a bit complicated to have a reasonable bedtime on Saturday. However,\r\nif I notice that it negatively impacts the rest of my week, I’ll adapt\r\naccordingly.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\nTwo additional comments. First, I do not plan to have fixed wake-up times for now.\r\nThe most important thing for me is to go to sleep at a reasonable time and hopefully get\r\nenough sleep, depending on what my body craves. Moreover, it’s hard to plan for nightly\r\ndisruptions (like needing to use the restroom).\r\nBut once I have a more regular sleeping schedule, I’m sure my body will adapt and I’ll\r\nbe able to plan accordingly.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\nNext, while I state I want to go to sleep by a specified time, e.g.: “Before 10pm”, my\r\ngoal is to get to bed 30 minutes ahead of schedule, yet have a margin of error.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\nOther than my sleep schedule, I could also work on my sleep hygiene. First, one thing\r\nI believe plagues most people nowadays is phone usage in bed. I’ve gradually started\r\naway while charging it at night, making it inaccessible, although I’m not always too\r\ndisciplined about it.\r\nBeyond that, I also have the terrible habit of putting on a tv show when I go to bed. This\r\nis in part to drown out my own thoughts, which tend to spiral while I’m trying to sleep.\r\nI will thus attempt to remove those bad habits from my life. For the phone, the\r\napproach is fairly self-evident, and simply requires discipline. As for television, it\r\nactually feels less straightforward. I often worry about changing that habit, especially\r\nwhen I have something important the next day (e.g.: an exam). Indeed, I worry it might\r\nnegatively impact my sleep and that I might simply be unable to fall asleep.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\nThus, I think I might want to take a gradual approach. In a first step, I would\r\nswap out television for music (possibly classical music, or at least something relaxing).\r\nObviously, I’ll want to add a sleep timer to it so it doesn’t go on all night.\r\nEventually, if this transition goes smoothly, I can finally move on to a\r\ncompletely silent approach…unless my environment turns out to be too noisy\r\n(e.g.: Neighbors or street noises).\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\nWell, here’s the beginning of my new journey towards self-improvement. As a first step, I\r\nintend on improving my sleep. I also plan to document this in a “journal”\r\nformat, logging the times I go to sleep, along with whether I relied on \r\ntelevision or not. I will then try to share my results here. If possible, I’ll try to\r\nlog my wake-up times, and how tired I feel during the day, although I can’t make\r\nguarantees on this.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n On this note, I hope you tune in next time, and that I’m more refreshed from better\r\nsleep! Hopefully this also makes you reflect on your own habits and how you might want\r\nto improve upon them. Have a nice one everyone! Take care!\r\n<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was written January 02, 2025 Introduction As mentioned in a recent update, I’m planning work on myself through the implementation of better and healthier habits. There are many aspects to consider: how to track and complete tasks and errands, finding ways to consistently study and work on projects despite a more constrained schedule, having … Continue reading Sleep Improvement Part 1<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retrospective","category-self-improvement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions\/2390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Improving my sleep<\/h2>\r\n
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\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Sleep Schedule<\/h2>\r\n
\r\n
Sleep Hygiene<\/h2>\r\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\r\n