I’m tired today. But the reason I’m tired is that I stayed up a bit later than usual last night, and on purpose.
For the longest time I had a very set schedule. I would get home from work between 6 and 6:30, and then typically go to bed between 9 and 9:30. I didn’t real decide this for any reason, other than it’s what my body dictated. Because I’m up so early, I just run out of steam around 9.
But now that I’ve changed jobs, I now get home between 7 and 7:30, so my home time–my chiI’m tired today. But the reason I’m tired is that I stayed up a bit later than usual last night, and on purpose.
For the longest time I had a very set schedule. I would get home from work between 6 and 6:30, and then typically go to bed between 9 and 9:30. I didn’t real decide this for any reason, other than it’s what my body dictated. Because I’m up so early, I just run out of steam around 9.
But now that I’ve changed jobs, I now get home between 7 and 7:30, so my home time–my chill time–has diminished. And I don’t like that. So in order to get more out of my day, to get back what I had just three months ago, I’m trying to extend my nights. My short-term goal is set my bed time at 10 pm. That would give me 2 1/2 – 3 hours of chill time at home.
Longer term, I’m hoping to extend my bed time to 10:30. That’s probably the ideal time for me, anyway, because my sleep cycles seem to run quite regularly at 90-minute intervals. So if I can get to get into bed at 10:30 (figure be asleep by 10:45), and wake up at 4:45 am, that’s 6 hours (which hits my 90-minute increment x 4).
I’m pretty confident that I can make the transition within 4-6 weeks, if not sooner. I’ll try to add 10 minutes per week, until I’ve gotten myself to 10:30. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to do it cold turkey. And when I’m settled in to a regular 10:30 pm bed time, I’m sure I’ll be happy I did it.
But whether I get to that point fast or slow, one thing seems pretty certain:
It’s gonna hurt along the way.
