Some cute graphic I made in Canva cos of Fair Use...
Sleep: one of the most vital biological functions keeping both our physical and mental health in check; one of the greatest pleasures we as humans have engaged in for basically the majority of our existence; and also, one of the most excruciating and painful tortures to go through, when you simply can't.
Like a lot of people in the world (hopefully) I have questioned how other humans have the natural ability to fall asleep early and actually wake up on time. IT'S ABSOLUETLY MADDENING! How in the world is it fucking possible for a person my age to actually go to sleep earlier than 3AM, get a full 8hrs rest, and wake up at 6AM without feeling like a bloody miserable bag of shit?! It's one of life's greatest mysteries; it has screwed me over throughout my entire life! I bet you all have experienced this scenario:
Imagine it is 8PM ('early' by normie standards); You have a thing to do tomorrow, like class or work, at around 7-8AM; You decided to try and wake up at 5 or 6AM, setting your alarm at that 'responsible' human wake-up time so you can fix yourself up. You freshen up, showering, brushing teeth, and/or washing your acne plastered face; it's now 8:30PM as you lay down on bed. After 15 or so minutes of closing your eyes: Nothing. You are still wide awake. You think of ways to tire yourself out, maybe that's the problem...
You look through Instagram, FaceBook, and Twitter on your phone; watch some stuff on YouTube and/or Netflix; Read a real page-turner of a book (because people blame technology for everything); Cook yourself a snack with a warm glass of milk; Count sheep while laying on bed with your eyes closed; Jerk off; And, pray to whatever deity you worship to forgive you of your sins and let you slumber...
NOTHING.
It is now around 12AM to 3AM at this point in time.
No matter what you do, you just cannot sleep. You feel tired, most definitely for sure! But there is just some evil unholy presence in your brain preventing that. What kind of sadistic line of reasoning compels the forces of science, or even GOD, to put you through such bullshit?! I bet Sleep Deprivation isn't even a kink!
Nevertheless... after so many long hours of battling restlessness, you are finally granted slumber. Embrace the pillows and the sheets! Straighten sleep wear (or whatever if u sleep nude)! Tell the angels and saints ringing the heavenly bells of slumber to SHUT THE FUCK UP!
The Sandman enters your chambers, looming over your tired innocent body. He sprinkles his magic sand shit that gets into your eyes in the morning.
You finally found peace, and sleep...
Then you wake up at 1PM. whoops.
Yeah, I really hoped ya'll enjoyed that read. If you all somehow managed to keep interest in reading this blog post: That's great!
There are countless articles online aimed at aiding you in falling asleep faster, and overall getting better quality sleep. There's literally a whole field of medical sciences dedicated in the study of sleep behaviors and sleep-related disorders called Polysomnography. All of this is because, according to common sense, sleep is a very important thing that helps the body with the whole "I need to be healthy to stay alive" thing. Sleep Deprivation is a very serious issue that many people have suffered through, leading to complications to mental and physical health like Depression, Obesity, etc. Not getting enough sleep can even effect your SEX LIFE gasps (you singles ain't exempted from this.).
Most of the advice given to me from both research and other people have been very consistent: Train yourself to sleep earlier; fix your bed time routine; stop using your gadgets; re-align your circadian rhythm; be healthier; and other little changes to my usual routine that scolds my lifestyle. And the implementation of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 Pandemic isn't helpful in my quest to finally getting better sleep, especially with me being on senior high school without any plan for college.
I am not saying that none of the advice given to me is worthless, they do have some value in them that might work with you depending depending on a wide variety of factors in life. Most of it hasn't worked for me; the sayings of adopting a whole 'optimized' routine are the least helpful for me. And don't you dare suggest sleep medication. That nasty expensive. There are somethings that have worked for me to some degree, like changing my surroundings to be more sleep friendly and playing some music or podcast softly on my phones speaker to help me sleep better (I can't sleep when it's too quiet weirdly)
Online Classes are very difficult; I will do a separate article about that, and surrounding issues, later on in a different article. I have no idea if the Philippine Government will continue to screw up handling the pandemic, resulting to every school resorting back to online classes. All I know is that the desk and laptop will be a large part of the "New Normal" for my life now. Due to this, and preparing myself for the hellhole of requirements in 12th Grade, I've been trying to turn all that around to a point where I can at least wake up in a consistent time.
Here are some of the things I have done to fix up my sleep routine (with more Canva graphics):
1. Set the latest limit of sleep to 12AM
As strange as it sounds to set something to 12AM, it is actually helpful for me. Most of the sleep advice stipulates that a person must strictly be sleeping by 8-10pm. This is not really helpful since it takes much more time for a person to transition from closing their eyes to that sweet Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep stage. I am not advocating people to sleep at 12AM, I am just saying that setting 12AM as the deadline for sleep is a bit effective for me personally. It's kinda like submitting homework online at 5pm; better to submit it earlier than minutes before the deadline. Plus, it isn't dun to scold someone to sleep at a strict time; this helps give more control in when you sleep at least. Go to bed on or before midnight.
2. Use Soft-lighting at night starting 5pm (or when it's sunset)
Bright lights generally make people feel more awake, and kinda puts more strain in the eyes which make it feel painful based on my own experience. Last Christmas my neighbor gave me one of those vlogger phone stands with the lamp on it, and I loved it! Instead of using the thing for its intended purpose of making vlogs, I used it as a complete replacement for my rooms lightbulb! It's a very small room, so the lamp's light is enough to illuminate the whole room; also it saves electricity. By replacing the intense normal light of my room with the softer and weaker light of the lamp, it makes an environment that is more relaxing (and gives me a preview of what college dorms are like). I can also change the settings of the light, which is really cool; the thing is not RGB though, it only changes of the lamps light intensity and brightness.
3. Light Snacking (BEFORE MIDNIGHT!)
I would've just followed my moms advice and "ate more during dinner", but sometimes you just want to have a quiet time to have some snacks and eat by yourself. I do not mean on chowing down in bags of chips and soda as a light snack; eating junk food late at night is unhealthy for you, and works against your sleep. What I actually meant was snacking on foods like some fruit, making a sandwich, or even making a small meal for myself kinda helped with getting me sleepy. Cooking is tiring; any physical activity is tiring. Eating, however, does have a stronger effect in making one sleepy. I watched a video on Food Theory that gave a good explanation (so that I won't have to do the science research)
4. Cleaning stuff up.
I am talking about more than just taking a bath; although personal hygiene is important for sleep, the 'hygiene' I'll be talking about is more than just a simple bath. My mom always tells me that it is more satisfying to sleep in a clean room, than in one covered in dust. She is right. I usually try to clean up my room in the night, because it tires me out and laying on a clean bed is satisfying. Moreover, cleaning the dust off the AC and the electric fan makes them work more efficiently, which helps make them last longer.
5. WORK!
To give you all some context: I have been typing this post since 4PM, and its currently 8:44PM as of writing. There is something about working that always makes me tired, probably due to my tendency to lean towards procrastinating (mostly on school work). When typing blog posts like this, I do a lot of research just to make sure what I am saying is correct; I do not cite them, it is just me fact checking rather than giving you all a full academic journal. Either way, doing anything work-related in general makes me tired after a while and gets me sleepy when I lay down on bed for a quick break. My desk is literally right next to my bed, which makes it more tempting. Though I recommend not going overboard with the work; the 12AM sleep deadline is still a thing.
There we have it! a full BuzzFeed Style top 5 article on what I do to help me sleep. None of what I have listed down is backed by science; I have no idea if any of this is in the first place. Overall, I would say I have a pretty bad relationship with sleep, but I'm trying my best to improve it. Waking up is one of the most difficult tasks of the day; I always feel tired, groggy, and more inclined to sleep more and hope that me 3 hours later is more awake than me at 6AM. Hopefully, since it's the last leg of the school year, I can try to improve my sleeping life and work more on this blog.
It is now almost 9PM, better prepare for bed.
- YugiBearz
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