Whether 'tis funner* for the mind to endure
The witty banter of Netflix
Or to take solace in the slumberings
[...]
Of sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub...
But I digress.
(*Funner is not a word. Don't try and use it in a sentence. But Shakespeare tweaked words and outright made them up, so creative license is taken.)
It's been one month and my resolution is, like any resolution, a work in progress.
Week one: Smashing success! Until the weekend. When we had friends from out of town.
Week two: Mostly smashing success! Until the weekend. Then we were out of town and Little Miss slept in the same room as us...love her; don't love what she does to my sleep sometimes.
Week three: A smashed success¡ At least I got a couple nights in... And then we got to the weekend...which I spent with my sister. And if you remember, the night owl thing runs in the family on the female side, so that, along with the fact that we hadn't seen each other in a while, plus the layer of us both having small munchkins...well...you get the picture. But nevermind! Onto:
Week four: A "crunch" success: i.e. it was the biggest week for my students (big ol' solo/ensemble festival at the end of this one), so some nights were awesome. And some weren't. But the weekend was spot-on and early, in fact! (I was plumb tuckered out.)
Meanwhile, I did learn a few things:
1. The SleepBot app is pretty slick. The hubby found it a while ago and I used it for *almost* the entirety of this resolution (so far). It gives you the ability to track motion and sound (so I can see just how disturbed and disturbing my sleep actually is). Plus it gives you fun graphs of your trends. And when I say fun, I mostly just mean nerdy/keep-me-honest graphs. My trends are as follows:
- I sleep on average about 8 hours. (Hey! That's pretty good, considering I want 9. Not too shabby.) Unfortunately, it's neck-and-neck with the 7 hour sleep mark... I think I can do better though.
- I tend to go to sleep somewhere between 12-2am. (Well, I'd say given my bedtime curfew, that's probably fairly reasonable. And the long-term looks to be more 12am based than 2am. Small victories here!)
- I tend to be awoken by small child around 9 am almost every day. I can work with that.
2. Even though I tended to drag out my bedtime curfew, because I had set one, I was much more aware of that fact. Was this a good thing? Undecided. On the one hand, I'm more aware. On the other hand...I feel guilty. On the other other hand (I'm borrowing your hand, dear reader), at least I could take my accountability into my own hands (see what I did there ;) ) BEFORE I went to bed. So there's that at least. Good ol' accountability.
3. I actually feel, overall, much more well rested. Which is weird. Because I didn't really meet my resolution goal very well. That being said, when I was consistently (ish) doing it that first week, I did have more energy. Was it because I was actually getting good, quality sleep? Meh. That's debatable. The spikes in sound and movement some nights were almost off the charts. (Seriously, check out this app!) But, I did have better control over my sleep patterns. Guess there's something to be said for a sleep schedule.
4. I'm tired. It's 11:54pm as I'm typing this. It's almost past my "bedtime". (Perhaps the resolution did it's job, then? Albeit spotty at times?)
So in short, I'll have to wrap things up (see #4).
What's next on the hit parade?
Well, I mentioned increased water intake. And now that I have a new water bottle that DOESN'T LEAK! I feel much more inclined to tackle this resolution.
And some words of encouragement to us all:
Resolutions are science experiments. Sometimes you need to adjust the variables to make it work. But always keep the constant consistent: Be true to yourself.
I will write a much more engaging blog entry next time. I had all this great info I was going to share. I even had a news article about sleep that *happened* to be in the paper at the end of the first week! But...then I just kept not finding the time to write this entry because...well...there was Netflix and then I had to go to bed. Late. So...I think I just wrote my next resolution. ;)
Until the next time I provide you with scintillating details of important mundane human tendencies...
I must retire. ;)
SMS
