Habit Formation: Day 5
Today is the fifth day that I am waking up early and so far, it has been amazing! The second day, I felt a little drowsy initially, but it disappeared after I worked out and had a shower. The day ahead flowed smoothly and quite productively. I did feel a little sleepy in the afternoon too, but I'd say that it was a completely different sleepiness than the one I was accustomed to. I was energetic, active and able to continue a task while feeling sleepy. If I'd have tried to sleep, it would have taken me less than ten minutes to lose myself but the sleepiness wasn't so overpowering and I could just keep continuing whatever I was without feeling like collapsing any moment on the ground due to excessive sleepiness. This sleepiness, I have figured out is due to the previous habit of taking afternoon naps. Now, that I am restructuring my sleeping cycle, things will stabilize and so will my energy levels.
As is my sleeping schedule, I am getting only six and a half hours of sleep for every twenty-four hours; compared to almost about twelve I was used to. I am saving half the time which I was wasting earlier and it's enabling me to do a lot more. Am I feeling rested? Yes, definitely. I am actually feeling a lot better than I used to. My energy levels have gotten pretty consistent now. Earlier I used to feel groggy and sleepy throughout the day. But now, that doesn't happen anymore. I feel energetic most of the time and feel perfectly rested after a night's sleep. The number of hours really doesn't matter as much as the quality does and I can tell from the way I feel that I'm getting high quality sleep each night. I fall asleep almost immediately and the next morning, I wake up a few moments after my alarm goes off. After waking up, I won't stay in the bed but get up and then turn the alarm off before heading straight for the bathroom instead of letting my bed tempt me back in. So far, it's going great!
I am having my breakfast on time and also working out regularly. My lunch? Yes, it is also on time now. I've also started sketching (something which I loved but had stopped doing due to not having time) again and I am writing something every other day. I'm getting a lot of time to read several articles and books. I'm having ample of time still left for my family or my dog. In fact, I have more time and fewer things to do and I am thinking of making a weekly and daily planner to use my time effectively.
At the end of the second day, I thought of making a little table to track my progress. So I sat and roughly made a table with 30 cells and filled them with numbers. I crossed the first two days and before going back to sleep, made a mental note to cross the next day soon after waking up tomorrow. Surprisingly, the next day, I woke up quite excited. I headed for the table and crossed the third cell. I was deeply satisfied and visualized the rest of the cells crossed too. This little drill is helping me immensely in waking up every day, apart from, that I have to for this series. This early morning cross-the-day activity has become a reward for waking up early—a deep sense of satisfaction. Definitely, try it out yourself. Make one for yourself and after waking up, immediately go to your table and cross the day the way you want to. I'm sure; it'll become one of the reasons to get up early.
The third and the fourth day were easier. I didn't have the slightest trouble in getting up and feeling motivated for the day. However, I had some cold coffee in the afternoon on the third day and found it difficult to fall asleep the following night. Coffee contains caffeine, which is a stimulant with a half-life of five to six hours, so even after its half-life, half the caffeine I chugged down was still in my system, making it difficult to fall asleep. I will, therefore, recommend that you stay away from tea, coffee or other stimulants while you're working with your sleeping patterns or either have it earlier in the morning. Any later than afternoon and it will disrupt your sleep cycle.
I also had a breakthrough today morning. I was sleeping in my room alone and therefore, no one's alarms could have woken me up but mine. However, I was awake before my alarm today. I looked up and my phone was still flashing 6:17 am. I still had thirteen minutes left and since I was strict about having a fixed waking time, I took those thirteen minutes and slid under my cover. No, if you are half expecting that I ended up oversleeping then that didn't happen either. I pounced up from my bed as soon as my alarm rang. I think that I'll soon get rid of the alarm clock if I'll wake up naturally or maybe keep it to act like the trigger it currently is—to signal me that I have to jump out of my bed.
For my scheduled naps, I'm skipping one of them, the one at twelve in the morning. I really wasn't feeling the need to and so I omitted it. However, I am taking a nap later in the afternoon to deal with the afternoon drowsiness and to even give myself a refreshing break. It turns out that that thirty-minute nap really reloads me for the remaining part of the day. As I will begin reducing the number of hours I sleep, I will again shuffle around with my naps according to the sleeping schedule I decide to stick to, but as of now, I'll take the afternoon nap whenever I feel a need for a break anytime in the late afternoon-evening slot because right now, I'm only focusing on having a fixed wake up time.
If you have still not begun your 30-day trial, I will definitely ask you to begin right from tomorrow. The benefits are really there and transformational. Just because I started waking up, I simultaneously fixed my health by having a good breakfast, working out and sticking to my meal times. You never know, how a little change can bring about other positive changes unless you really try it yourself.
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