A fine insight; I suspect it applies to me too. I snack when I'm tired to perk me up. The taste is nice, but increasingly I'm finding it doesn't actually give me more energy. More often, avoiding food at tired times gives me more energy, even if I'm a little hungry, and even if I've skipped earlier meals.
On that bedtime thing. Lately, I've been really tired and I sleep until I'm no longer exhausted - about 2pm. That's 12 hours sleep.
But I've noticed I wake up about 8am very consistently recently, look at the clock (like you), think "haven't had enough sleep", then roll over and have really bad sleep for the next six hours.
So last night I went to sleep at midnight, woke at 8am, and felt ok. No exhaustion all day. (Bit tired from too much internetting, but that's a different problem. Manual job required!).
The corrollary of my story is that going to bed at midnight or earlier is really good for me, and I forget that. I often go later, typically 2am but even 1am has a harsh effect. I tend to think that missing an hour or so won't be too harmful, especially as I can get by on very few hours, or none, for a few days when I need to.
But when I go to bed seems to have an effect on my getting up time and energy level way out of proportion to the variation in bedtime. I conclude that my optimal going to bed time is about 10pm, and that anything before midnight is quite good, and that anything after, if done consistently, results in me needing 14-16 hours before I'm not entirely exhausted and then I'm still a bit flaky.
I'm telling you this because you might find an earlier night makes a real difference, even if you do get disturbed when Alex comes up later. There seems to be something to the idea than which hours are rest/sleep is important, in addition to amount and pattern.
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chiming
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Date: July 27th, 2007 04:07 pm (UTC)From:On that bedtime thing. Lately, I've been really tired and I sleep until I'm no longer exhausted - about 2pm. That's 12 hours sleep.
But I've noticed I wake up about 8am very consistently recently, look at the clock (like you), think "haven't had enough sleep", then roll over and have really bad sleep for the next six hours.
So last night I went to sleep at midnight, woke at 8am, and felt ok. No exhaustion all day. (Bit tired from too much internetting, but that's a different problem. Manual job required!).
The corrollary of my story is that going to bed at midnight or earlier is really good for me, and I forget that. I often go later, typically 2am but even 1am has a harsh effect. I tend to think that missing an hour or so won't be too harmful, especially as I can get by on very few hours, or none, for a few days when I need to.
But when I go to bed seems to have an effect on my getting up time and energy level way out of proportion to the variation in bedtime. I conclude that my optimal going to bed time is about 10pm, and that anything before midnight is quite good, and that anything after, if done consistently, results in me needing 14-16 hours before I'm not entirely exhausted and then I'm still a bit flaky.
I'm telling you this because you might find an earlier night makes a real difference, even if you do get disturbed when Alex comes up later. There seems to be something to the idea than which hours are rest/sleep is important, in addition to amount and pattern.