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I’ve been trying to stay up later to shorten my time in bed but I’m finding that I’m falling asleep on the couch two hours earlier. I try everything to fight off sleepiness and exhaustion and push through and then when I finally go to bed I’m immediately alert and can’t fall asleep. Is it better to go to bed when I’m feeling sleepy even if it’s earlier? Better to sleep from 10-2:30 then 12-2:30?
Hello Sue!
How long is your sleep window? It should be a minimum of 6 hours. Feeling sleepy way before your bedtime can be a result of an excessively shortened sleep window, so you could be slightly sleep deprived. Good luck!Hi. I’m giving myself 5.5 hours. And yes after over two years I’m very sleep deprived. I’m just wondering if instead of taking a wake up time of 5 and counting backwards to 11:30 if it’s better to let myself go to sleep at 9:30 when I’m so ready and getting up at 3, changing my sleep window time to match when I’m naturally sleepy. Thinking maybe I’d sleep better.
Hi Sue!
If you have no commitments and love getting up at 3am, then sure why not. 5.5 hours is probably a bit short though if that’s how long you intend to sleep over 24 hours. But what you could also do is wake up at 3am, stay awake and keep yourself occupied/entertained with light duties like reading or watching tv for 2 hours, then try sleeping again at 5 am for a further 2 hours for a final out of bed time of 7 am. Remember that you are automatically accumulating sleep drive for every minute you are awake so that 2 hours in between two distinct sleeping phases could help you achieve more overall snooze time. It would be interesting to note that many pre-industrial revolution humans slept like this. They went to bed at dusk and had a “1st” and “2nd sleep phases” separated by a period of wakefulness in between where they ate, prayed, made food, hung out, had sex etc. The idea is to be flexible and go easy on yourself when it comes to sleep. Just don’t stress over it and you should do quite well. Best of luck!
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