“Sleep is for the weak,” I would mutter to myself as I dragged my tired limbs out of bed at 5am. I knew that if I let myself drift off again, I risked missing my alarm altogether and waking up in a panic four hours later.
Summoning the willpower to wake up early has never been difficult for me. Getting enough sleep, though? Virtually impossible. Despite the carefully thought-out sleep schedules crafted for me by my lovely mother when I was a child, none of it stuck. I’d always find some sort of night light and read into the small hours of the morning, a habit that had morphed into a Wattpad addiction by my early teens. Don’t even get me started on university and my wildly irregular routine. If the work got done, I decided, none of the rest mattered.
Now that I’ve gotten older and my frontal lobe has fully matured, I realise this nocturnal pattern is something I need to fix, and fast. Shortly after turning 25, I set myself a challenge: I would go to bed at 9pm every day for a week to see if I could develop a healthy circadian rhythm that worked for rather than against me. All the while I’d track my wellness stats, like sleep quality and daily “readiness”, with an Oura ring.
Here’s how it went.
Days one to three
My experiment began on a Thursday. I cruised through the 9-5 and followed it by attending a lovely work dinner, sensibly heading home straight after.
I have a simple and consistent nighttime skincare routine that involves gently removing all of my make-up with an oil-based balm before going in with a second cleanser and then finally hydrating with a moisturiser. By the time I’d finished, it was almost 9pm, and so I dutifully hopped into bed.
While my mind had got the memo, my body was clearly confused. After much tossing, turning, sitting up and humming to Role Model, I eventually drifted off. Come the morning, my Oura ring told me I hadn’t begun to fall asleep until 11.37pm, well after I’d gotten into bed. Fortunately, my sleep score was an impressive 96 per cent, which meant that once I was asleep, it was restful. Plus, I was out for seven hours. A win is a win.
Day two followed the same pattern, only ever so slightly less successful. It was midnight by the time I actually drifted off, and my sleep efficiency dipped to 91 per cent. It was clear that my chaotic circadian rhythm wanted to stay put.
On day three, I incorporated some deep breathing exercises into my nighttime routine after turning off all of the lights and setting my phone aside. According to Stanford University, focusing on long, controlled breathing exercises can have a calming effect and reduce anxiety, priming your mind to switch off. It worked like a charm: I fell asleep much earlier, and my sleep efficiency clambered its way back up to 94 per cent.
Days four and five
By day four, I was getting into the swing of things. My sleep efficiency hovered at a healthy 94% and I began to fall asleep even earlier, only 90 minutes after putting on my pyjamas and reaching for my emotional support water bottle.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: vogue.in
