What I Learned from my New Sleeping Challenge 💤

Over the past two weeks, I took a challenge to get more sleep.

What an interesting day it was to stick to any type of new routine or habit right?

In these Quarantine days, it was obvious for me. 😉 

Despite the uncertainty in times, I knew I needed some structure in my life.

Sticking to a planned routine has always been my way of coping with uncertainty. It didn't go well all the time.

And I knew it wasn't the time to compromise a good night's sleep.

Photo by Gregory Pappas on Unsplash

MY SLEEP WAS UNPREDICTABLE

We all know getting enough sleep is vital, yet most of us aren't consistent with our sleep habits.

The main reason I wanted to take this sleep challenge was that my sleep timings vary so much. 

I would sleep in afternoon with no plausible limits. It would end in 20 minutes or would stretch to straight long 4 hours. Who's gonna care in this quarantine?

Sometimes I'd go to bed at 10 pm and sometimes it would be late as 2am. I had no regularity and it made getting up in the morning really really difficult.

I would always wonder, despite sleeping for nearly 10 hours [ Both afternoon and night sleep combined ] Why I can't get up comfortably in the morning. And it really left me burning in my head, had I become some sort of dead brain?

What had got me?

I used to sleep perfect from 10 pm to 6 am even before I gave JEE exam, KCET exam and my PU Board Exam. I never felt I was short of sleep.

Then,

All of sudden, even with almost no major works to do, I was craving for longer sleep hours.

It's really strange.

Even when I sleep more than I used to, even with very little work to do, I felt exhausted more often in morning. 

[ Facepalm Myself 😟]

I didn't realize soon, how much this one single thing affected my mindset, mood and productivity levels.

I often ignored this simple thing believing that the way I'm doing things is right under my control but I didn't heed to control at all.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY SLEEP CHALLENGE

This was my very satisfying experience.

It was a great example to show how a simple challenge can show you what's possible if you switch things up.

My goal for this sleep challenge was to be more disciplined around the time I went to bed.

My usual routine before was to spend time with my laptop until I felt exhausted. Sometimes, I would scroll my Instagram discovery endlessly or watch some movies late night.

To change that,

I decided to I would close my laptop at 9 pm sharp, relax for sometime. Go around my home a little walk after dinner. Read something until 10:30 and go to bed.

But the reading part was again stick to Quora. I left with bright screen again till bed time. So I decided to shut this practise down within 4-5 days. Instead, I started to walk around home with sticking headphone around the head. It was quite sustainable to avoid screen late night.

When I followed this,

I noticed, I felt less irritable and grumpy in the morning.

My days started to move smooth because my morning wasn't clumsy anymore.

There were definitely times when I slipped up and didn't closed my laptop at 9. 

Just like when I'm typing this right now [ half-past 10 already 😅 ].

But I didn't beat myself up for skipping up because I knew that it wouldn't change anything. I just make sure it doesn't happen very often.

I just did better next night.

That's all.

Habit creation is - trying again until it sticks.

OMG, It's very rewarding. 

WHAT I'M DOING TO MOVE FORWARD

I'm glad my parents challenged me to this sleep experiment because without it, I might have just accepted my old sleep habits as the norm. 

They always used to tell me the concept of Biological Timer in our body.

If you start waking up same time everyday from now for next 21 days [approx.]. You don't necessarily need a alarm to wake you up from 22nd day.

Yep.

That's subtly called 21/90 Rule.

Rule says that, 

"It takes 21 days to make a habit and 90 days to make it a lifestyle."

Worth Trying.

Good challenges are all you need to kickstart a craving change in your life.

Moving forward, I'm planning to keep up this routine I've created for myself.

[My Hostel routine is a disaster and I've still got no solid proof to believe that I'd resume there]

But I'm capable this time.

I've made my mind not to stay up until 2am for unnecessary reasons.

Feels like I'm more motivated to keep doing it now.

Send me your wishes too.

I thought of sticking to a routine feels boring. Especially we are already in one and want to change for good. A few days of effort and Boom!. You'll be happier in the end.

After all, we need structure in our lives if we want a good lifestyle that we dream of, inspired from achieved people.

It all begins with sticking to a good habit.

WHAT ARE YOUR SLEEP GOALS?

I hope this post has encouraged you to think about your own sleep routines and idea to challenge yourself for good sleep.

Don't let silly excuses get in the way - "You've got this".

. 

.

.

I'd love to hear from you 💖