Advent Shaden's August Challenge

[Advent Shade]

I've posted this one in Personal Effectiveness because that seems like the most appropriate place to put it. Over the next 30 days I am going to spend my time conditioning the habit of getting up early in the morning. Not absurdly early; no crack of dawn stuff, but earlier then my usual times at the moment (12:00pm 'gulp')

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My Current Status
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At the moment I have a very poor sleeping pattern (at least relative to the standards which I would like) I tend to fall asleep at about 3:00am and wake up at about 1:00pm of my own accord. So thats ten hours of sleep in the least handy place possible. I often feel sleepy throughout the day and don't hit my stride until about 7:00pm when I go out with mates.

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My Goal
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I intend to change my sleeping patterns so I am falling asleep much earlier and waking up at about 6:00am. I hope by the end of August I will have conditioned myself enough so that I wake up with the alarm. Difficult I know, but I am optimistic and 30 days is a long time. I will employ Steve's strategy of falling asleep when my body makes me aware of it so I will probably be aiming for a bedtime of about 10:00-11:00pm.

So here goes nothing. I will write up each day with my experiences and what I have learnt from it. I will comment on difficulties I experience and surprising breakthroughs that seemingly come out of nowhere. I will laugh and I will rub my tired eyes as my body struggles with wild and out of control circadian rythmns. I will be completely honest with myself. I will not miss a day of journalling.

That was a personal oath by the way

[bradb]

I've made this massive adjustment in my sleep schedule on several occassions. I find the best strategy is to just "jet lag" it. Rather than gradually adjusting from waking up in late morning or early afternoon to 6:00 AM, I just force myself out of bed at 6:00 AM in one shot.

If you need to, set two alarms, one across the room from where you sleep. It's so important to physically get up, because I find that if I lay around at all I fall back asleep.

On that first day, I'll also allow a short power nap around late afternoon to help me along. It's a groggy strategy, but it works for me.

Have fun.

[Advent Shade]

Day One

Sleep Time: 11:30 - 6:00 (6.5 Hours Sleep)


Well, the important first day is out of the way and what a start! After being rudely awoken by my phone going off and the clashing cymbalsl, pounding drums and eerie chanting of 'Sairin Katatsubasa No Tenshi' at full blast, I somehow managed to find the strength to drag myself out of bed. Actually that's a bit of a lie; I turned on the lights and sat at the edge of my bed, completely unaware of my surroundings, for about 10 minutes. I wasn't asleep but at the same time I wasn't conscious either - wierd huh? The human brain can be a magnificently strange device at times. But I did get up eventually, so you could say that Day 1 went off without a hitch. Who would have thought I had it in me to make such a dramatic adjustment without any serious problems?

So how was the first day on the new regime? Odd in many senses. One of these was the sudden shift in how I perceived time. It's almost like I doubled the length of my day; I had so much time on my hands that I actually got bored of shooting aliens on Timesplitters 2 pretty early and proceeded to do 3 straight hours of quotient and product rule questions for my summer maths homework. 3 hours! Don't get me wrong; I love maths and always will do but come on - this is the quotient and product rules. There's only one person who ever loved them and that was the person who invented them. Don't ask, I don't have a clue who. Probably Newton.

So aside from doing more homework in one afternoon then all of the last two months put together what else did I discover in my first day? Well... hunger! That's right I got a lot hungrier a lot quicker. I suppose such a dramatic change would bring about such a result. I ate at 7:00am, 11:00am, 12:30pm, 3:00pm, 7:00pm and 8:00pm. Seriously, I was like a little hobbit . It was a lot of fun and I think I ate about half a pot of peanut butter in total by the time I settled in for the night. I love peanut butter.

My body clock was also surprisingly quick to adjust to the new pattern I had chosen. I was walking back from my friends house last night at about 10:00pm, after being thoroughly whipped on Mario Strikers Charged. Surprisingly I was feeling very, very sleepy. I expected my body to take a couple of days to catch up, but it wasn't so as on the first day my systems were already adjusting to the change. Very smoothly done indeed. This could be a lot easier to pull off then I thought.

I fell asleep bang on 11:00pm, about 3 hours earlier then I normally do. So all in all, I think I had a fantastic first day. Only another twenty-something to go.

Bring on Day Two!

[Advent Shade]

Day Two

Sleep Time: 11:00 - 5:00 (6 Hours Sleep)


I work on Sundays from 5:00am-10:00am, so I had to be up early today anyway. It was interesting, however, to see what the impact of my new changed sleeping pattern would have on my ability to get up at such an early hour. The answer... not a great deal I suppose it would have been nice to see some improvement but one can't have everything in two days I guess. I'll take note of this and see what happens next week.

Well I managed to get 6 hours sleep, which is more then my usual 3-4 () so there was no need for a midday nap as usually happens after work. I got paid, came home and proceeded to spend the day either playing Guitar Hero 2 (exercise), finishing off the rest of the product and quotient rules for my maths homework (education) and continuing to get whipped on Mario Strikers Charged (humiliation). All in all I think I've lost 17 games in a row now . I'll let you know when my first win comes along... perhaps that will be the challenge for September!

I was hungry again, but that's probably because I worked for five hours, very early in the morning, so when I got back from work I treated myself to a burger and continued to snack all day. It wasn't as bad as yesterday so perhaps I was more of a dwarf rather then a hobbit.

I also experienced a profound sense of well-being from having so much extra energy. I was whistling at work. Who whistles while stacking papers!? Throughout the rest of the day I also felt strangely blissful and content, a change from the tired, grumpy me that usually emerges on days like this. My parents went to York to see my brother so I had the run of the house and used this to great effect to... do my homework. Gee, aren't I the party animal.

Once again I was feeling fairly tired by bed-time, had a shower and was asleep by 10:30pm. My body clock certainly has caught up very quickly and I never expected it to be this easy.

Bring on Day Three!

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Hey, just wanted to say good luck with your challenge. It seems to be going really well!

[Advent Shade]

Day Three

Sleep Time: 10:30-6:15 (7.75 Hours Sleep)


I overslept a little today but that's because I was stupid enough to forget to set my first alarm for six. Interestingly enough though, it hardly made a difference - and I found myself waking up around about 6:00am thinking to myself 'where the hell is the bloody alarm?' Of course then I proceeded to do what most people would do in this situation; roll over and go back to sleep. It is interesting to note though, that after three days my body clock is so well-adjusted that I am starting to wake up before my alarm. I wonder where I will be in 30 days... will there even be a need for an alarm at that point. Somehow I doubt it, but with such progress one can't fully count it out...

I'm starting to feel a lot more happy during the day, which with the extra 7-8 hours feel about twice as long. I'm getting a lot of homework done (I finished the maths yesterday, leaving me with three other subjects to complete, but I have nothing major to deal with, so I'll do a little every day for the next two weeks). My appetite is starting to return to normal although still with a slightly larger peak with it - probably because I'm getting about 2-3 hours less sleep then I did only a week ago. I will continue with the regime and hopefully with any amount of luck, I'll manage to condition my body into quicker and more intense cycles of REM sleep so I get even more rested and even more energy.

The profound sense of well-being carried on all day, triggering what I might call a placebo effect all the way through my body. The mind's effects on the body are truly complex and intriguing at times. Just by the act of getting up early I sweat less, my face has cleared up and I feel a great deal cheerier then normal. Even the bags under my eyes have cleared up a great deal - from getting less sleep! Wierd, huh?

I spent the day lazing about; playing computer games, surfing the net, eating, drinking and doing the occasional spot of Maths work. It was a fun day but it didn't really tire me out a great deal so when I turned in for the night I lay awake listening to music for about 45 minutes. Finally at about 11:15pm I dozed off into a deep and restful sleep. It's been a week since I changed the covers so I'll probably change them tomorrow. I hope a suddenly comfortable bed won't affect my ability to wake up in the morning!

Bring on Day Four!

[Advent Shade]

Day Four

Sleep Time: 11:15-6:05 (7 Hours Sleep)


Once again today, I experienced the odd feeling of waking slightly before and wondering where the hell the alarm was. This is an excellent sign as it shows that my body clock is really starting to click into place and perfecting it's adjustments to the new sleep patterns I've started to condition myself. Of course I didn't get up - I waited for my alarm to go off, lay in bed for about 5 minutes listening to music, then got up and started to go about my day.

I'm running out of things to say in these things. Today was pretty standard stuff. Play, read, eat, drink, talk, surf; the usual jazz. I return to college in 12 days and I have to;

- Read 3 books
- Complete some Physics questions
- Write an essay on Mussolini

in that time. But that's not too bad; I can read a book a day if I want too (or if I'm forced to by certain events) - the Physics questions will only take a day, as will the essay on Mussolini. So I've got plenty of time to catch up with my work.

On a lighter (and much more important note)... I finally won on Mario Strikers Charged wiping the smug grin of my friends face (it wasn't gone for long. He then proceeded to whip me worse then ever before winning 12-0 ). I think because of this I was able to sleep easier when I went to bed. Oh on that note I was fast asleep by 11:15 just like on Day Three.

Bring on Day Five!