On Sleep…
Yet another confession: I’m a night owl. Through and through. I wince at the early morning sunshine. Morning people disturb me greatly, and I always seem to do my best thinking when the sun has set.
And yet… it’s not how I’m supposed to work. Nor is it how the world needs me to function. A day job cares not for my 2 AM shenanigans, it cares only that the job is done. An energetic toddler does not care if I’ve had an entire pot of coffee and counting. All he sees is “Daddy is up, lets play!”. Life does not pause just because I am tired. It is all I can do to bully my brain into putting word after word on this post. And I’m actually coming to enjoy the act of writing!
This is an issue that plagues so many of us in our modern trappings. Everything is so readily available, so vastly efficient, that unless we put in enormous amounts of hours doing whatever drives us, we are wasting irreplaceable time. If you’re like me, the siren call of the Internet has wrecked many a good night’s sleep. It feels as though surrendering to sleep is an act of weakness, like we are giving in to some needless and useless demand of biology.
As I have gone through this year, and have worked ever harder at acts of self improvement, I have studied my sleeping habits and patterns. There is a bevy of research and a host of benefits which are available to those who slumber often and deeply. Yet the knowing of such a thing and the practical application of that knowledge are vastly different, and as unique to each human being as we are different from each other.
I want to take this time to share with you what I’ve used to aid me in the eternal quest for that perfect night of rest. Some of them might strike you as painfully obvious, but a lot of these are things that more than one man or woman that I know has struggled with.
The first thing that has begun crafting my night time wanderings into productive somnolence is exercise. Yup. As I’ve lost weight this year (at 241 from 276), I’ve had to do a lot more exercise than I have in years. Going along with the process of exercise, I’ve gotten my hands on some excellent research pointing out how exercise can bring us an almost instant sense of wakefulness and provides deeper, more restful sleep. Now, I’m not asking you to go to a gym and go full blast on cardio or lift weights for hours on end. Simple, moderate aerobic exercise (think walking, light cycling, light jogging, wherever you’re currently at) done a few hours before bed will give you an immense boost to your ability to fall asleep and feel like it mattered.
The second thing I’ve done, and something I still struggle with, is attempting to cut back on my computer time prior to sleeping. Please remember, I work from home, my desk contains four computer monitors, I am attempting to begin semi-professional gaming in addition to my blogging and writing and exercising, and I am a habitual user of Wikipedia (I get lost for hours). So my computer time is… significant. That having been said, the times where I have been able to wrestle myself from the monitors before I wind down for the evening has shown immense benefits. I fall asleep much quicker if I’ve given my eyes a chance to wind down from the harsh, unnatural light of my monitors.
The third thing, and arguably the most important, is that I have taken to using a white noise machine to assist me in sleeping. In this case, I use a fan in the bedroom. Now, that sounds very counter-intuitive. A machine which drones on and on while I’m trying to sleep and while I am asleep seems like it would impede a decent night of rest rather than facilitate it. However, numerous and varied studies have all implicated white noise as one of our best means of defense against waking during the night. I personally use a white noise machine for our young son, and have seen tremendous results with it. There is a stark and plunging gulf between the nights where he has access to the noise and nights where he does not. I personally feel less rested and more irritable on nights where the machine was turned off or was not available.
These are things that have worked for me, and excluding today, are various solutions which are actively helping me along the paths I choose to tread. I cannot guarantee they will work for everyone, but I do know that if sleep is an issue for you as it is for me, then any lifeline is a most welcome addition.
