Give me ENERGY!

I can’t think of anything more frustrating than lying awake in bed for half the night. Yet, that is the problem so many of us experience when we are trying to get rest - it comes at all the wrong times. One of the simplest (and often hardest) ways to get a good rest, is to sleep deeply at night.

For this reason, it’s imperative that we make sure we can sleep properly at night, and not during the day. Even though it may be hard to go to sleep at night, try and wake yourself up (and get up) at the same time every morning. In almost all the cases, you’ll find this forces your routine to change, so you eventually get to sleep earlier.

Don’t worry about setting your alarm for 5:30am on day one. I remember what my doctor told me (and you should consult your doctor before considering if it applies to you); I was told to change my wake-up time by 5 minutes every week. I thought, “That’s crazy, it will take me 12 weeks to shave an hour off my waking time!”. Yet, now I see this was so I wouldn’t get discouraged when I relapse.

We so often start off with so much motivation, and end up a tired wreck again at the end of a week or two. So make your bed time stick, by setting your biological clock consistently. If you have a relapse, a change that has been implemented slowly, over a long period of time, will not disappear after a bad week. Even if you only change your waking time by 5 minutes a week, it’s important to keep the changes slow and consistent. Remember - this is your biological clock you are re-setting, It’s much more complicated than a wrist watch!

Filed under: tips