What does it take to get a good night’s sleep? Sadly, a good night’s sleep is the product of a whole day’s worth of decisions.
Beneficial habits and sound decisions aren’t always made in the moment. For example, the final revelation that helped me quit smoking for good was realizing I did not choose to smoke when I lit each cigarette. I was choosing to smoke each time I bought cigarettes.
So now I’m trying to get a good night’s sleep. For that I need a set bedtime early enough in the evening to allow about seven hours of sleep. For that I need to start winding down about an hour earlier. I’ll don my blue-blocking glasses and listen to something relaxing like birds chirping in a rainforest. I find that to be easier if I feel like I’ve had a good day as opposed to one that is unfulfilled. Otherwise I stay up late trying to accomplish more.
It also helps to have a healthy dinner and to exercise after work. If I get home and eat fast food while sitting in front of the television, I fall asleep early and then I won’t be able to sleep normally that night. So it is important for me to have energy after work and for that I need to be able to work productively rather than burning myself out. But if I eat out of the vending machine rather than eat just what I packed, I will likely have a sugar crash that will decrease my efficiency.
Why would I eat out of the vending machine? Brain fog that comes from not eating a healthy breakfast because I didn’t wake up early enough in the day. And why did I keep hitting that snooze button? That’s right. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep.
It is a viscous cycle with many more cascading effects feeding into it than I outlined here. A tidy bedroom helps me wake up refreshed. Meditation helps. Many other little things contribute to a good night’s sleep.
A good night’s sleep is hard to find. Metaphysical grandmas will send you down the wrong road and then their cats will jump and claw until you run into a ditch. Next thing you know ruffians are marching you and your family off into the woods, and there goes your good night’s sleep.
The heat these past few weeks has drained me of energy. Even if I wake up early, eat a healthy breakfast, go into work with a clear mind, eat a healthy lunch and work productively, I find I am still exhausted by the end of the work day. All I want to do at that point is find something cold to drink, something convenient to eat and then do (in the weakest sense of the word) something sedentary like watch television. This invariably leads to a cycle of bad sleep.
If I am aware of these cascading effects, it can help me achieve my goals. I don’t get a good night’s sleep, so I must follow the moment back to the point when I fell off the path. If the heat drains my energy, then I can follow my brother’s suggestion and take a cooling shower after work.
I would write more on these cascading effects, but now it is time for me to start winding down. I have done enough today. I want to get up early and go have breakfast with my parents and from there see if I can get a good start on my work week.
