Heyo my sweetlings, it is October and already my butt is getting kicked by the routines and schedules I'm trying to set. I'm a morning person, I do best getting up between 7:30-8:30am and getting to work around 8-9am. I'm productive, feel accomplished and have huge portions of the day left over once I'm done with my work if I can get on that schedule. But here is the thing, sleep and schedules don't work well for me as a self employed writer!
My job, and the physically taxing part of it, was what kept me on a schedule through the days I had off and kept me going to bed at a reasonable time and out within moments of my head hitting the pillow. I've found there just isn't enough stimulation, and physical exhaustion through my day to put my ADHD to rest and make my body want to sleep when we lay down. This in turn is hurting my sleep schedule and making me sleep through my most productive times and wake up with sleep exhaustion (because I'm just not getting good quality sleep). To add to these things my husband works EARLY in the morning, often up at 6am in the morning, and he wakes me up while getting ready more than makes for restful sleep.
So here are the three ways I'm going to try to get on a schedule and get better sleep.
Setting an earlier bedtime. I know, I dislike this idea a LOT, the idea of going to bed at 10pm just doesn't sit well with me, but if that is what it takes to be able to shift my schedule I guess that is what we are doing.
Physical Exorcise. I've noticed the biggest thing on why I lay awake at night is that my body just does not want to sleep, it's still on day mode. It hasn't been exhausted yet, and so it's still wanting to go, go, go while I'm trying to pass out before 3am. So I'm adding some pretty rigorous workouts and walks to my weekly schedule to see if that is enough to exhaust my body for bed.
Setting up a bedtime routine. I used to have one of these, and I'll be honest I've let it go but taking time out of my night to care for myself and work on my bedtime things would be super helpful. In the past things like journaling before bed, reading a chapter of a book before, and all of that stuff really worked. So I'm going to go back and see if it helps again.
Over the next month I will be implementing these changes for 6 days of the week, and letting you guys know each day that I failed, and the differences between the success days and my cheat day.
I'll have an update for you guys next Monday!
If you want to change your schedule and sleeping habits to rest better feel free to try these three tips out with me.
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