Sleeping

Sleep is a very beautiful thing. It is in fact one of my favorite activities in life. Getting enough sleep, however, an elusive thing to acquire. Difficult on its own, but add in outside distractions such as slamming doors (roommate), clicking from energy meter, and an eastern facing window and sleep becomes near impossible, at least for me.

The key component of sleep, is the full REM cycle, and as one ages, sleep patterns change and the amount of sleep required also changes. Nonetheless, my not getting enough sleep (6-7 hours/night) is draining on me. I'm a 10 hour sleeper if left in a dark and quiet room. I'm sure this inadequate sleep is harmful to me, and there are all sorts of studies on the internet about how not getting enough sleep is actually killing us (mentally and physically). I'm too lazy to link it.

So what to do? Well, first one of my healthmonth rules is to go to bed at 10:30 pm. The idea being that I might not fall asleep until 11, but that should be the latest pending all other distractions.

And strategy against distractions?
Noisy roommate: Well first, tell said roommate to politely STFU and stop slamming doors. Utilize white noise with a fan. Now the box fan is too cold during winter and the first part of spring, and since both my roommate and I have our own bathrooms that share a wall with our bedrooms, we run the fans in bathrooms. (Yes, its very energy inefficient). I will return to the box fan once the temperature gets up to about 60 or so.

Clicking noise from the utility. This random clicking from the meters turning happens all day, but especially at 11:30, 2:30, and 5:30 (or at least that is when I would notice them). I purchased a White Noise Machine from Amazon at $50. It is worth every penny. It drowns out light noises (but none from roommate). The best part is, its travel size, and I've taken it to two hotels. (I find hotels to be noisy, especially in the morning.) I was made fun of for having one during a work weekend, but considering I was the only one who slept through the screaming children and slamming doors from the basketball team sharing the hotel, I didn't really mind.

Eastern Windows: Blackout cutrains. They're cheap and come in many styles. That fix happened upon day one. Nonetheless, a very sunny morning can still stir me from my deep slumber, but it is a more pleasant way to wake up.

Even with all those strategies, I can't seem to feel rested. The only idea I have is to implement a George Costanza nap. Much like this crafty genius, I too have the available space under my desk to take a short session of Zzzs. However, my office can be quite noisy and bright (see distractions). My co-workers have offered a new solutions, since our office is located in a library, that we simply sleep among the books. Most of the people are on the computers within the library, and not within the stacks of books. Personally, I would implement nap time in an office. Just a 15-30 minute break where a person can shut down and recharge. Productivity would go up along with sanity. Then I wouldn't feel so bad about my 10:30 rule being bent once in a while.