Life Hack — Blog — Healy Chen

Compromised sleep

What I do when I know I won’t be falling asleep anytime soon? Simply go with it. Don’t fall asleep. It’s totally fine. Get out of bed and go do something else. It sure beats tossing and turning for at least an hour! I rather read a book instead. The quantity and quality of sleep would be the same either way. Sometimes there’s too much on my mind for it to calm down and get to slumber.

Last night was such a night. My mind was too preoccupied with the happenings of the following day (today). I knew immediately after shutting the lights that sleep was not coming quickly. So I turned the lights back on and did some work on the computer. Stuff that mainly concerns with the thing of tomorrow (today) that was simmering in my head. If my brain is so eager and anxious about it, might as well get a head start.

Again, this isn’t some tip to preserve sleep: it’s going to be compromised whether I stayed in bed or not. Some nights are just rougher than others. The coffee this morning is especially crucial now that I’ve only got about six and a half hours of shut-eye. Good news is, today is the next day! I’m now free to take action on the items I was ruminating about.

Then hopefully the sleep will come easier tonight. Nevertheless, it’s better to go with the flow of what your body is telling you then fight it. If sleep isn’t happening anytime soon, get up and go do something else. Nobody enjoys lying in bed and being wide awake for hours. Even when the bed is new and super comfortable.

One sleep hack

As an avid purveyor of proper amounts of sleep, one of the prime difficulties is ensuring I am getting the necessary hours. It’s not enough that I block out the eight hours per night, because we really don’t fall asleep immediately, do we? Unless of course we are damn tired from a hard day, but those are thankfully few and far in between.

What usually happens is I would spend about 10 to 15 minutes after getting to bed trying to fall asleep. And that’s on a good day. Some nights it takes what feels like an interminably long time before I enter into sleep. The problem usually compounds, because I would get frustrated that I’m not falling asleep fast enough. I’m going to miss my eight hour target! That frustration of course would then further prevent me from going to sleep.

A vicious cycle!

So what I’ve done these days is allocate time for that period of trying to fall asleep. For my optimal eight hours of sleep, I would block out nine hours of actual in-bed time. It’s a win-win: if I enter sleep quickly, I get the benefit of an extra hour of slumber. If I struggle to fall asleep, I have about an hour of buffer before it actually affects my optimal sleep. No need to get frustrated: I’ll fall asleep eventually and it’ll still be alright.

Obviously, this is predicated on me actually going to bed at the appropriate hour. Too many potential distractions out there: twitter, Youtube, TV, and video games. It takes discipline for sure. If you’re the type to burn the proverbial candle late into the night, this sleep hack of mine isn’t going to work for you.

Unless you don’t have a job to go to the following morning!