Category Archives: Sleep

Goals, Health, Sleep

Reprogramming My Subconscious

As much progress as I’ve made in some areas of my life, lately I feel like I’ve been sabotaging myself in other areas. Other than injuries, I’ve done great sticking with running this year. I’ve done fantastically well with my food habits too.

I previously wrote about sleep. At the time, I was doing well enough. Then I decided that I wanted to go to sleep and wake up earlier. I want more wakeful hours during daylight and to not be rushed to get to places before they close when I have errands to run.

I started to work my way to an earlier bed time and wake up. Then I hit a whole lot of resistance. I’d end up staying up even later than before and sleeping later into the day. It’s almost a compulsion to keep doing whatever I can to not go to bed.

I’ve also been feeling extra groggy when I haven’t gotten a full nights sleep. So my willpower to wake up earlier is more easily overpowered. The same thing happened last year in the fall and winter. I wonder if part of it is environmental, but I’m not exactly sure what it would be. But it doesn’t keep me up late.

The same sort of pattern played out a bit in my reselling business. I built up to a certain point and wanted to go further. Instead, I ended up going backwards.

It happened when I was a kid as well. I was sick a lot (I think I was making myself ill), so I was homeschooled in 5th grade. The district provided a tutor. I remember one particular assignment. I was supposed to write a report. I don’t recall the topic. I had all the materials, but got overwhelmed and didn’t do it. The due date, which I helped choose, came and went. My tutor even explained that he was pretty sure that I’d get overwhelmed, shut down and not finish.

Even though I don’t do moderation very well in a lot of cases, I’ve found that I have to try it in others. To get back on track in my reselling business, I had to break it down into smaller chunks. Instead of spending 4-6 or even up to 10 hours a day, a few days a week doing as much as possible, I give myself a few things to do daily while watching or listening to something over a couple hours. I guess doing it daily could be considered all in, in one manner of speaking. The distraction of sound and/or video also helps.

I also have a book that I planned about 2 years ago, wrote a few pages last year and haven’t done much with since. I broke it down into small sections, but it still overwhelms me, both the size of the task and the subject matter. I really want to complete it, maybe even need to complete it. The resistance is seemingly insurmountable, though.

The comfort of the status quo is incredible anti-motivation against these things I want. Change can be difficult and even scary. Consciously I want to make changes to become my potential. Subconsciously, I’m trying to protect myself from failure, rejection, overwork, danger or whatever the perceived threats.

The trick is reprogramming the subconscious to no longer see these things as threats. I’ve done it before in other aspects of my life. Time to put in some more work, and maybe learn a little moderation.

Health, Sleep

I Love Sleep

I’ve had an on again off again love and hate relationship with sleep. I’ve had several bouts of insomnia, lasting from days to over a year. Much like many other things, my outlook on sleep has changed a bit as I’ve grown a little older.

I’ve always liked sleeping, but until fairly recently I hated the necessity of sleep. I wished that I could find a way to sleep less without being tired. I thought I was wasting time by sleeping. Time that I could spend doing other things, not that I was being especially productive anyway, but that’s beside the point.

My ambition for running longer distances was actually a catalyst for me to change my thoughts on sleep. Several months ago, I came across Michael Arnstein, the Frutarian. I watched a number of YouTube videos of him speaking. One thing that he emphasized helped him with recovery was getting enough sleep. “Enough” for him was 8-10 hours of sleep a night, possibly up to 12 after a 100 mi race. I already knew that sleep is when our bodies do much of the repair processes. But it gave me something specific to think about in that context, rather than some nebulous idea of repair or regeneration. It’s pretty amazing to feel the difference between the evening after a long or otherwise hard run and in the morning following a full night of sleep.

I’ve been a night owl as long as I can remember. I’ve tried to fight it on a number of occasions, but I end up just cutting back on sleep to get up earlier, rather than going to bed earlier. Since making the connection between my body’s regeneration during sleep and run recovery, I’ve given up the fight. I go to bed when I’m tired and get up when I feel I’m well rested. It’s usually 8-10 hours. Occasionally, it’ll dip to 7 hours or go up to 11. It helps that I work from home and make my own schedule.

You might think, “well that’s great, Brian, but I don’t work from home, nor do I have a flexible schedule.” When I do have something that I have to get up for, I occasionally cut my sleep short, depending on the situation. I’ve also tried another of Arnstein’s suggestions a few times, taking melatonin about an hour before I want to sleep. It works OK, but not great. I count back 9 hours from when I need to get up and take .5-1 mg of melatonin. One thing about melatonin: I’ve had some crazy dreams after taking it. Apparently, people into lucid dreaming like to use melatonin to try inducing lucidity.

If I need to make a pretty drastic sleep schedule change, I sometimes take a few days to adjust. I might sacrifice an hour or two of sleep the first day. Then I’ll adjust my my schedule in stages. The Rattlesnake Ridge 50k I did last month started at 7:30 am. Accounting for getting ready, drive time and check-in, I had to get up no later than 4:45 am. Around then went to bed about 3-4 am on average and woke up around noon, give or take. Two days prior, I set an alarm for 10:30 am, and got about 7 hours. That night, I got to sleep between 1-2 am and set an alarm for 8:30 am. I took some melatonin the night before the race and got to sleep around around 10 pm. While not ideal, it worked. Next time around, I’ll give it a couple more days.

For those of you that have to be to work or school on time at the same time every day, or get your kids and family ready for their day, you can create a flexible sleep schedule enabling you to sleep until you’re well rested. Figure out your range of needed sleep. It might take a little experimentation, probably best to do on a weekend or otherwise when you don’t have to be up at a specific time. Results might be skewed if you’re going from sleep deprivation directly to sleeping to well rested. Until you narrow it down, start with 8-10 hours. Count back 10 hours from when you need to get up. That’s your bedtime. Then sleep until you’re well rested. If it’s only 8 hours, you now have 2 hours extra in the morning for whatever you want — exercise, read, have an awesome breakfast, meditate, or whatever.

I love sleep, and sleep loves me. Even though I used to think I could accomplish more by sleeping less, I’m happier getting enough sleep than having that extra time awake each day but being tired all the time. I’m not convinced I got more done over the long run anyway. Not only am I happier, I also feel a lot better throughout the day. Not being tired all the time is awesome.