[Brave Heart 122]

Hello, I’m looking for a bit of feedback, I have slept every night since implementing Martin’s You Tube techniques. My current sleep window is 12 to 6 and I’m filling that most nights ( 5 to 6). Previously, I was sleeping whenever I could at night so sometimes that would look like 2 hours to 10 hours sometimes not at all AND I stayed in bed which created extremely unpleasant experiences.

My question is two fold, how long do I stay with current window and how do I increase? I am feeling “sleepy’ at night and have a great deal of daytime fatigue. Right before I get in bed I usually have a major stress response and then I remind myself that I can always get up and do deep breathing which helps.

Please share any experiences. Thank you!

[Chee2308]

Hello!

You should slowly increase your time in bed once you are able to consistently spend most of that time sleeping, ie >85% for most nights for at least 1-2 weeks.

You could go at it slowly at first, adding 15-30 minutes, you can choose to go to bed earlier or get out later or a combination of both. After 2 weeks or so, re-evaluate the above again to see if you need to keep adding more time or cut back a little. You keep doing this until you reach your desired bedtime length.

Do note that your sleep quality will likely suffer temporarily once you do this, because that sleep pressure backup is getting cleared by the increased sleeping. This is quite normal! I can’t emphasize this enough, so expect it to happen then it comes less of a surprise. It could take the form of requiring longer to fall asleep, waking up more often or earlier than usual or all of these. Just remain faithful to your set sleep schedule, try not to over-react and you will do fine. Good luck!

[Author]

Posts