The Tamesis
As I dragged my tired limbs out of bed at 5 a.m., I would say to myself, “Sleep is the right of the weak.” I knew that if I let myself fall asleep again, I might miss my alarm entirely and wake up four hours later in a panic.
It has never been difficult for me to muster the willpower to wake up early. But is it enough sleep? Almost impossible. Despite my loving mother’s carefully designed sleep schedule for me when I was a child, and adult promises of weekend sleepovers, none stuck. Don’t even get me started on college and my extremely irregular daily routine. I decided that if the job was done, none of the rest would matter.
Now that I’m older and my frontal lobe has fully matured, I realize this nighttime pattern is something I need to fix quickly. Lack of sleep has been linked to many health problems that can be written on your CVS receipt (such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and immunocompromise, etc.).
Shortly after turning 25, I set myself a challenge: I would go to bed at 9pm every night for a week and see if I could develop a healthy circadian rhythm that worked for me rather than against me. I’ve been using the Oura ring to track my health statistics, such as sleep quality and daily “readiness.”
Here’s the thing:
Days 1 to 3
My experiment started on Thursday. I survived my 9-5, then had a nice work dinner and wisely went straight home. I have a simple and consistent nightly skin care routine and by the time I’m done, it’s almost 9pm so I dutifully jump into bed.
While my mind had the memo, my body was clearly confused. After a lot of tossing and turning, sitting up, and humming to “Role Model,” I finally fell asleep. In the morning, my Oura ring told me that I didn’t start falling asleep until 11:37pm – duh! ——I have gone to bed. Luckily, my sleep score was an impressive 96, which means once I fell asleep, it was restful. Plus, I was out for seven hours. Victory is victory.
The next day followed the same pattern, just slightly less successful. By the time I actually fell asleep it was midnight and my sleep efficiency dropped to 91. Apparently my messed up circadian rhythm wanted to stay the same.
