Sleep

Written Nov 11, 2022, tagged under post

I'm beginning to realise that, down the line, I'm going to look back at what I've been writing in this blog and see clear themes emerging.

One key theme is about consistency: occasional heroics don't count for much, it all comes down to what you can stick with over time. Another - pretty foundational for me - is going to be sleep.

The odd bad night's sleep here and there isn't going to move the needle too far one way or the other. Get into the habit of getting to bed too late, though, and it soon starts to take its toll. This is because lack of sleep inevitably leads to more bad decisions and things going wrong.

It takes discipline to get to bed at a sensible time. My personal experience is that, unfortunately, once I start to get tired then I lose that discipline and find myself staying up later than I should - and so the cycle continues. Then add in the fact that I am a bit of a night-owl, and appreciate the peace and quiet after everyone else is in bed.

Most nights this week I have just about managed to get enough sleep ... until last night. I ended up having a slightly late night after getting back wired from orchestra and going through a daughter's essay, followed by a 6am start for boot camp this morning. So the process starts; and now this evening, I've ended up catching up on a few things I've been planning to do, made easier by everyone else having gone to bed. Looking at the clock now, it is only just still Friday.

Unfortunately this isn't a new pattern. I was much the same as a teenager (staying up into the early hours speaking to friends on a CB radio ... hey it was the 80s) and at university.

So here's an action plan to try to get ahead on this one: seriously think through my priorities. I know that the old adage "I don't have time for X" really means "I have prioritised X as less important than Y, Z and A". I need to answer the question: what is important to me? And then behave accordingly.

Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash