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This is the next experiment in my continuing effort to get consistently refreshing sleep. I will create a specific and timed routine that I'll do each night before bedtime. The idea is that having a well thought out routine that I do the same every night will reprogram my patterns and perspective about sleep. NB: This is partly inspired by Fredrik's comment at http://edison.thinktrylearn.com/experiments/show/186 ("prepare the whole area for sleep").
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I'll track how refreshed I feel each morning, and a subjective sense of whether the night was good or not. Smashing success is that the routine works, I get my sleep reset, and feel a lot better! |
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I'll try it for a month. |
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Enjoy the comfort of habitualizing a routing that I don't have to think about. Enjoy the relaxing aspects of 2 and 3. Be curious about the results. See which parts are easy for me, and which need energy to change. |
Create an Experiment
Matthew Cornell
- Member Since
- 07/02/09
- About Lover of experimentation and leader of Think, Try, Learn, the scientific method for discovering happiness. Creator of Edison, the Think, Try, Learn experimenter's workbook. http://edison.thinktrylearn.com/ http://www.thinktrylearn.com/ http://www.matthewcornell.org/
- Web http://www.matthewcornell.org/
- Experiments 98
- Observations 1262
Comments & Observations
Matthew Cornell Last night was the first night, and it worked very well. I hadn't formulated it as specifically as above, but did it in spirit, though it was late and I was very tired.
Note: A related micro-experiment within this is to allow myself only 10 minutes of laying without falling asleep, and then get up. Also is the rule of doing nothing in bed but sleep and sex. Any reading or other activities should be done in a chair by the bed, for example.
Aug 20, 2010
Matthew Cornell The last two nights worked very well, but tonight I don't feel very tired. I do like the routine, though - it's calming. But I'm running it for a month for this very reason - to average out results. Some lessons learned so far: Do your processing with your spouse before you start the routine. Otherwise it can be stimulating or upsetting when covering problems, etc. Also, it would have been good to explain what I'm doing to my wife and daughter so they know what to expect, and how to work with me.
Aug 21, 2010
Matthew Cornell Another thing that I'm trying is moving slowly, including walking and moving my limbs.
Update: Last night didn't go so well. Laid down for :20, got up, laid back down, then was up until 2p. Experiment continues...
Aug 22, 2010
Matthew Cornell I've been tracking my sleep cycle using http://your.flowingdata.com/, which has made it more fun. I'm recording simply "down" (when I layed down in bed) and "up" (when I got up). An ideal night pattern is "DU" (zero intervening "UD"). I've just analyzed the results of the last nine nights (I was very rigorous in capturing D's and U's) and had: 2 DU (0 intervening), 5 DUDU (1 intervening), and 2 DUDUDU (2 intervening). In other words, most nights (~80% of them) I had at least one intervening UD. The rougest nights are the 2's, and the ones where I'm up late, like 1a or 2a. I'll continue the month to see if any patterns emerge. Nothing leaps out at me so far. Actually, one surprise is that I had *any* 0 nights.
Aug 30, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm continuing the experiment because the data seem helpful. I'm making two changes. 1) I'll try to self-enforce a 9pm "no computer" rule. 2) When I get up because I can't sleep, I'll try a "30 minute" rule where I stay up at most 30 minutes before lying back down.
Sep 03, 2010
Matthew Cornell Also, I'll start tracking exercise (yes/no) to see how it relates to DU patterns. Still using YFD.
Sep 04, 2010
Matthew Cornell This is helping a lot, best I can tell. Even on days following nights where I had a DUDU or worse, I still feel more energetic than before. Plus, if I'm not falling asleep it feels less stressful because I have control; I get up, relax a bit, then try laying down again. I feel like I'm working in harmony with my Bipolar II and other cycles. Much better than my prior ad hoc approach. Great results so far.
Sep 09, 2010
Matthew Cornell Some insights from this experiment: It has changed how I experience sleep. I'm genuinely curious about what my sleep will be like each night. This is much lighter and different from before where I would stress each night and get upset when it looked like a bad night was happening. Feels much more in harmony, rather than trying to force myself to sleep, which is both stressful and impossible. This is also good because I know getting up isn't the end of the world. I'll just lay back down in a bit. It's part of a plan to reprogram. Feels good. Opposite from all or nothing thinking. This is very good stuff.
Sep 12, 2010
Matthew Cornell As a side-effect I'm accidentally running a sub-experiment: Do 1+ hour of strenuous exercise (mountain biking) every day. I'm about to go out for my 11th day. Yesterday was a breakthrough: When I was riding back on the road up a longish hill which I normally crawl up, I thought "I think I'm stronger than this". I then passed up my buddy who'se usually ahead of me and pedaled home in a jiffy. Also, when I got home I felt energized, rather than my usual dead tired after a ride. And my mood was great. The weather's been cooperating, which has helped. I'll continue until I get bored.
Sep 13, 2010
Matthew Cornell Decided to share my log: http://your.flowingdata.com/matthewcornell/page/1184/
Sep 14, 2010
Matthew Cornell I tell you, I'm not seeing any obvious patterns, which might mean I'm not tracking the right things. One hypothesis about my sleep is that my sleep cycle is out of sync with my Bipolar II mood cycles. It's like analyzing the fishing catch and not tracking weather. However, my mood's been pretty steady the last month, so I'm not sure what I'd track. Here's what I found so far:
o Exercise seems unrelated to sleep.
o I seem to get up around the 11 o'clock hour every night.
I'll continue the experiment for a while, but I'll certainly keep the practice permanently.
Sep 14, 2010
Matthew Cornell Last 3-4 nights have been rough, primarily due to mood disorder rearing its ugly head. I need to analyze the stats to see how it's impacted total hours of sleep. Perhaps more important, I should look at how rested I feel each day. Actually, I have rough binary of restedness that I can infer from whether I rested/napped or not.
Sep 21, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm completing this experiment because it's served its purpose. I did a eyeball analysis for patterns, and found none. Accepting that humans are terrible at finding meaningful patterns in data, I continue to believe that the mood disorder is the primary indicator of whether I'll have a good night's sleep or not. It's unfortunate that I didn't track mood during this. That will have to be another experiment. Here's what I learned
o The routine gives me an improved sense of control, and gives relief when I'm not falling asleep. I'll stick with it.
o It is better to get up for a short time (<=30 minutes, say) then go back down, rather than prolonging the time up.
o It is good to stop working on the laptop (even for pleasure) at ~9p.
o Going to bed when I feel tired is good.
o Laying down to rest during the day is good if I need it.
o Exercise doesn't make a major difference in sleep quality, but I'll keep doing it of course.
Bottom line: It is a helpful routine and I will continue it.
Sep 25, 2010
Matthew Cornell I've not been doing this routine for a few weeks, and I miss it. I tend to go to bed late, and when I get up I tend to stay up too long. The thing is, I have so much work I want to do (excitement is good!) that I drop the discipline to go to bed when I'm tired. Not sure what my next step will be...
Oct 10, 2010