What I’ve Learned from Sleeping (My Fourth Challenge)
I’m coming to the end of challenge number four. I wish I could tell you that I am now getting a nice eight hours of sleep every night. I’m not, but I did learn a few things along the way.
1. It is important to look at the big picture and the small picture.
When I started this challenge, I was getting about 6 hours a sleep on average each night. After 13 days of concentrated effort to work on my sleep, I’m now getting 6.25 hours of sleep every night. That is right. After working like crazy to make myself go to bed by 10:30 p.m, I’ve only increased my sleeping time by an extra 15 minutes a night. I thought it was a tiny amount until I realized that it adds up fast.
.25 hours of extra sleep X 365 days = 91.25 hours of extra sleep
By working on getting to bed by 10:30 p.m , I am giving my body a 91 hour present.
2. Encouragement to do your challenge can from funny places
One night about 10:20 pm, I was on the computer. Suddenly, the computer screen gave me a message. “I am your computer”, it read. “It is time to go to bed. The internet will be turning off at 10:30 p.m”.
Well, I was quite impressed that my computer knew I was doing this challenge, but I didn’t believe that it would actually happen. At 10:30, the computer did what it said it would do. It turned the internet off. I had a good laugh and the next day the Accountant showed me how to use the settings on our computer network to turn the internet on and off.
There is still time to vote for my next challenge.
A) Track everything I eat and plan menus for the next 13 days
B) Jump rope for 13 minutes every day for the next 13 days
C) Write 13 positive affirmations about myself every day
D) Clean my house (I read a study that said people with clean houses are healthier.)
Vote now by leaving a comment.
my 13 day challenge 
So amee, half the battle about falling asleep is about what you don’t do for the hour before. I’ve found that doing the computer is about the worst thing right before bed. I think is has to do with light entering your eyes and your body not producing melatonin.
In other words, blogging about sleep right before trying to sleep may be harming your sleep!
You are probably right. I need to find another time of day to blog about trying to sleep, because I will just stress about how I”m not sleeping.
I vote for jumping rope.