Deliverable

Last week I began tracking my sleep patterns. At this point it’s more about observing patterns and seeing what I’m currently doing. Last night I did my “falling asleep on the couch to TV” thing. So far today I’ve been listless and haven’t gotten a damn thing done. Now that I think of it, it was preceded by another day in which I got nothing done because I went to bed way late because of a gig. (Full disclosure: I could have gone to bed right at 5 when I got back from the gig but decided to stay awake another couple of hours to watch TV. I didn’t sleep on the couch after this and I did get a full 7 hours sleep in my bed, but my body clock was so messed up by the time I got up that the day was pretty much wrecked.) The important thing to note here is that I’m really much more aware of the connection. I see my fucked up mood as something that is based on the quality of the sleep I’ve gotten. I took a nap for about 45 minutes or so (might have been an hour to an hour 1/2). I remember dreaming, though I’m not sure what the dreams are at this point. My head feels clearer. I feel like I have more drive. I feel like I can still salvage the day. It’s amazing what REM sleep can do!

Ah, patterns are a wondrous thing to behold indeed! In the past I would have repeated this sleep pattern right into my teaching days. The whole week would have gone by and I would have gotten way less done than I might have otherwise because I was working on half a brain.

I am committed to creating a new habit in this area of my life. It’s this type of self observation and analysis that’s going to help me do it.

—-
Related articles:

• Erratic Sleep Patterns = Public Enemy #1
• Consistent Sleep Schedule

This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Concepts, Health, Sleep, Thoughts.