My 30 day sleep challenge

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Day 1 - First day success

Last night while listening to zen habit's book "The Power of Less", they recommended focusing on a small measurable habit for 30 days and letting other people know what you're doing.

Target Wake Up time: 4:15 am

Methods:
- Eat big meal just before bed. People say you shouldn't do this but that's what I did last night and I think it helped. I only eat 2 times a day, my 2nd meal will now be the cue to get myself ready for sleep.
- 1 alarm set on phone and 5 set on my watch.

If anyone is wondering how this relates to finances, this relates to everything. If I wake up consistently at 4:15am, I consistently get my workout in and start the day fresh. In regards to execution, consistency is key.

 

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[Mattie]

consistency is key.

I don't think it would matter what time you get up or whether you eat or not before you go to bed. It matters that you're consistent every day to form a good habit no matter what it may be.

 

[themaxx]

I don't think it would matter what time you get up or whether you eat or not before you go to bed. It matters that you're consistent every day to form a good habit no matter what it may be.

Agreed. Make sure whatever you do you do not miss one day for any reason. There's a great book called "Superhuman by Habit" which has great tips for building positive habits. It really helped me.

 

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Day 2 - almost failed!

Going to sleep wasn't too bad, the hard part was staying asleep after waking up half way through the night.

I'm naturally a night person so throughout my life I've always had trouble falling asleep on time.

I've also struggled a lot with trying to come up with a guaranteed formula to ensure a consistent sleep pattern. I've had times where I wake up early, exercise early, even take sleeping pills and still can't fall asleep at night.

I've never factored my diet into my sleep routine before and I think that's what I was missing. I'm looking at this from a long term perspective and my guess is that no matter how stressed out or busy I get, I'll always remember to eat my last meal (only eat 2 times a day) which will serve both as a reminder to finish up my day and as a way to get my mind to relax, I think these are the elements I was missing before.

My diet is already a fairly strong routine so it makes sense to build on top of that.

I don't think it would matter what time you get up or whether you eat or not before you go to bed. It matters that you're consistent every day to form a good habit no matter what it may be.

As stated above, sleep is pretty tricky for me, if I don't play my cards right I'll lie awake in bed for hours.

Agreed. Make sure whatever you do you do not miss one day for any reason. There's a great book called "Superhuman by Habit" which has great tips for building positive habits. It really helped me.

Looks very interesting, will definitely be reading it.

 

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[Sean Corroon]

what time do you sleep at ?

 

[7.62x51]

Day 3 - so far so good.

Pretty amazing so far how different my days are when I wake up on time. Those early morning hours are gold in terms of productivity.

Next week I start a new job which will be a huge disruption to my usual routines. If I can make it past the next 7 days then I should be able to make this routine permanent.

what time do you sleep at ?

Currently my routine is as follows

Wake - 4:15 am

if exercise
then, meal 1 post workout, ~7 am
otherwise
meal 1: 12 pm

meal 2: 7 pm

Sleep - 8-9 pm

 

[7.62x51]

Day 4 - 1 hour of sleep last night

Slept at 8 pm but woke up at 9 pm to go to the bathroom and couldn't get back to sleep, too much light and way too much noise. I'll need ear plugs next time.

The problem was staying asleep. I think that having the right environment is what helps one stay asleep.

Now the challenge is going to be staying awake until 8 pm tonight, so long as I can do that, I should be able to bounce back from this.

 

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[OVOvince]

Can you tell me the benefit of this? I am curious. I am also trying to wake up early like at 4:30-5:00 am.

Thanks

 

[eliquid]

I've been a natural night person my whole young adult life. After being a father and having to be awake during hours everyone else is, Ive slowly begun getting tired at like 11pm now.

Im trying to get to the point I fall asleep at 10 or 11pm, but get up at 5 or 6am.

My problem isnt falling asleep, its constantly being awakened multiple times in the night over different things so I never get a full sleep in.

 

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Day 5 - checking in

Slept around 7:30 pm yesterday. Stress level was high partly because of the 1 hour sleep from the night before.

Can you tell me the benefit of this? I am curious. I am also trying to wake up early like at 4:30-5:00 am.

Thanks

The biggest thing I've noticed so far is that I feel like I have more control in my life. For example, getting a bunch of important work done by 12 pm whereas before I might have just been getting out of bed at that time.

 

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[7.62x51]

Day 6 - done

Last night was the first day at a new job. If it wasn't for this challenge, I would have stayed up late after coming home, trying to get some more "me" time.

I also didn't feel sleepy when I went to bed. My mind was racing, a lot of thoughts and a lot of negativity too.

I then tried to rationalize it all away. Telling myself that it's pointless to have these type of thoughts before I go to bed and that the time before bed is one of the only times where it should be okay to just relax and let things go. That was the last thing I remember so it may have worked.

From my understanding so far, sleep is complicated. Even if you do everything perfectly during the day (wake up early, exercise, healthy diet, etc.) you'll stay awake in bed at night if your head isn't in the right place.

 

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Day 7 - another night with little sleep

Turns out, developing a consistent sleep routine is not just about going to bed and waking up on time, there's a 3rd component; staying asleep.

Went to bed at ~7 pm woke up at ~11 pm. Should have learned from last time and used my earplugs (it was quiet when I was going to sleep but later got noisy). I also changed my diet a bit (ate more than usual) so that could have played a role too.

 

[7.62x51]

Day 8 - slept at 11

Waking up was easy enough. Used earplugs and they certainly made a difference in terms of sleep quality.

 

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[7.62x51]

Day 9 - done, posting from my phone

 

[daivey]

eating before going to bed is bad.

 

[EvanOkanagan]

Day 9 - done, posting from my phone

Have you read The Miracle Morning?

It's a short book all about waking up early and the psychology behind it and techniques/practices to do in the morning. Has chaneed thousands of people's lives.

 

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[7.62x51]

Day 10 - done, although it was another all nighter

Feels like 4:15 am is the new 1:15 am; I can easily get to it without falling asleep. Not sure what to make of this but I guess so long as I'm not sleeping at 4:15, I've technically reached the goal.

Life has just been really chaotic recently.

Have you read The Miracle Morning?

It's a short book all about waking up early and the psychology behind it and techniques/practices to do in the morning. Has chaneed thousands of people's lives.

sounds interesting, I'll look into it

 

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Day 11 - done

Some days waking up is easy, other days like today, it's actually quite hard. I think it's because of the sleep cycle I happen to be in during wake up time.

After I wake up -> brush teeth -> eat pre-workout meal -> post here, my focus is back.

 

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Day 12 - done, although technically this is day 13 since I failed yesterday (woke up but quickly went back to sleep)

not worried though, I've developed a fair amount of momentum now and I'm pretty confident I'll be able to continue this

I just recently lost my wallet and it's really wrecking havoc on everything

 

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[7.62x51]

Day 13 - done,

Yesterday was really bad, missed my workout, missed work and didn't follow my diet at all because I was stressed out about finding my wallet but at least I found it in the end.

Although waking up at the right time is becoming second nature, going to sleep is not.

It's just like if you have to wake up early for work and you care about your job, chances are you'll wake up on time no matter when you went to bed if at all.

Honestly though, I'm really nit picking here, my 30 day sleep challenge so far is proving to work as I intended and life is good.

This is my early morning wake up song.

 

[7.62x51]

Day 14 - done

 

[7.62x51]

Day 15 - done

Half way through.

 

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[marklov]

I am a natural zombie but waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning can really kick start your day , you get so much shit done and psycholigicaly can make your days feel longer even if you work the same amount of hours.

By around 11 am or so I need a power nap so I can muscle through the next 3 or 4 hours then my work day is pretty much done.

Personally early mornings are great for productivity but zombie hours for self study like podcasts , webinars and reading but I often times fall asleep listening audio books for some reason lol.

Energy levels in the mornings seems to fluctuate a lot but much more stable in the zombie hours odd....because I did "reset" my
circadian rhythm.

 

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Day 16 - done, what I've learned so far

Adaptability to change is a very important factor for a routine to survive in the long run. The more lean/simple the routine, the easier it is to adapt to the wide array of changing circumstances that you will inevitable encounter over the course of weeks, months or years.

I read the following excerpt in an AI book:
"As a general rule, it is better to design performance measures according to what one actually wants in the environment, rather than according to how one thinks the agent should behave."

Applying that insight here we see that it's important to define our routines based on what we actually want in life not based on what we think we should be doing.

 

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Day 17 - done
Slept from 7pm to 4:15 am (~9hours). I did wake up twice throughout the night, during both times I noticed there was a lot of noise. Fortunately, I now always have my earphones handy when I go to bed so I was able to simply put those on and go back to sleep.

During some days of the week I won't be able to get in 8 hours of sleep. For example, on days where I work from 12pm-9pm, I'd be lucky to be in bed by 10pm (~6 hours sleep if wake up at 4:15am).

So I figured I'd make the focus of yesterday and today to catch up on sleep time.

Also I must emphasize, having a healthy diet and a steady exercise routine has helped with this too.

Many times throughout my life I've tried to master my sleep routine and I never made it past a week so I'm really excited.

 

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[7.62x51]

Day 18 - done, sleep time: 2 hours
Saturday night I slept on time and slept well, got 8-9 hours, Sunday night was the same but then Monday night (last night) was difficult (2 hours sleep, slept at 2am but was trying to sleep since 7pm).
Monday I didn't have work nor go to the gym, I spent the day cleaning and catching up on things so a lack of physical exertion could be a potential explanation.

Also, waking up at 4:15 am in of itself is really becoming too easy so I'm going to now start taking note of total sleep time as well and see what I can learn from that.

 

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Day 19 - done, sleep time: 4 hours

 

[7.62x51]

Day 20 - I messed up yesterday but now back on track.
slept at 10 pm, sleep time: 6 hours

 

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[7.62x51]

Day 21 - done, sleep time: 5 hours (slept at 11)

 

[7.62x51]

Day 22 - done, sleep time: 7 hours (slept at 9)