I've always thought of myself as a night owl. Why? Because I think I love to sleep in. Do I? Sometimes when my sweetie lets me stay in bed and HE gets up with the kids. I love him when he does that for me. Sometimes I even return the favor. I should do it more often but I think I'm so tired because we stay up too late at night. Why is this my second post on sleep today? Because I'm plotting to change my ways. Well, really it will be "our" ways because Travis will be in on it too. He just doesn't know it yet. He'll have to read this post. Just kidding. What I mean is that I need a partner in crime to make this work. Travis will be great! Come on, who doesn't want to be healthy, wealthy and wise? I'm not talking about getting up because we have to with our early bird kids. I'm still half-asleep until 9:00 when that happens. I'm talking about waking up early on our own because we are rested and ready to start our day. I hear there is a way to do this...
My friend, Reg, passed along a link to a great article on "How to become an early riser". The gist is that if you want to become an early riser you have to change your view on sleep. The author suggests that you begin going to bed when you are really tired. Meaning you'd be too tired to read another page of your book. This bedtime would vary each night according to how tired you feel. Then you pick a set wake time. That's the key to feeling rested and ready to tackle your day. He says that if you have young kids that you can just be flexible with the "plan" and work towards the goal. Right. We'll have to tweak our plan to account for night visitors.
I have to say that this quote from the article makes being an early riser sound great:
"Think about what you could do with that extra time. Even an extra 30 minutes per day is enough to exercise daily, read a book or two each month, maintain a blog, meditate daily, cook healthy food, learn a musical instrument, etc. A small amount of extra time each day adds up to significant amounts over the course of a year. 30 minutes a day is 182.5 hours in a year. That’s more than a month of working full-time (40 hours per week). Double it if you save 60 minutes a day, and triple it if you save 90 minutes a day. For me the savings was about 90 minutes/day. That’s like getting a free bonus year every decade. I’m using this time to do things that I previously didn’t have the time and energy to do. It’s wonderful."
I think we'll start our own experiment and let you know how it works for us! Maybe I'll turn into Superwoman like Holli! :)
5 comments:
I needed that post . . . I'm seriously trying to change my ways. Maybe we should make a pact and check up on each other. My goal tonight is to be in bed by 11. We'll see. :)
Man... I fall asleep walking at 930. You guys are crazy!
Superwoman sleeps in. Didn't you see the movie. I think you might be reading the book instead of watching the movie of it...Just letting you in on a few of my secrets. Oh and by the way...That Reg...he is always corrupting everyone's ways!
Maybe I should have pointed out that the author of that sleep article later abandoned that logical approach for polyphasic sleep (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep) and I'm pretty sure lost some brain power in the process.
I believe it! That would be so weird to only sleep through 20 minute naps every few hours around the clock. I think I'd be giving up on that one, too. You know, I think I'd be a good hibernator...I want to settle in for the loonng night!
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