Is something keeping you awake at night? During the sleep challenge you should be increasingly aware of how you’re sleeping. Sometimes you go to bed at night, but you don’t sleep. Here’s a few reasons that might happen:
Didn’t prepare to sleep (too much junk light, sugar, caffeine, etc.)
Angry about something
Worried about something
Exercised too late in the evening
Didn’t do what you needed to today
Chemical / medical issue
While other reasons exist, this small list captures a significant number of personal sleep inhibitors. Consider that last point first. If you have a medical condition that prevents you from sleeping, this challenge won’t cure that. Get professional help and don’t delay. While this challenge can benefit you, a medical condition could derail your best efforts. This is the 80/20 analysis of today’s article. If you have a medical sleep issue, focusing on that will get you the biggest return of sleep for your efforts. Prioritize that over all other sleep issues.
Excluding the medical issue, you’ve probably experienced the other sleep inhibitors at some point in your life. It’s frustrating to hurry to bed, especially when it seems early, and not sleep. Sometimes you’re not sure whether you slept. If your thoughts feel slower than usual in the morning and things just don’t work as well, you probably didn’t sleep as much. If you aren’t sleeping when you go to bed, ask yourself some critical questions. Are you truly preparing to sleep? Did you do the things we’ve talked about so far this month? Maybe you stayed on the computer a little later and tried to shut down and get to bed in less than 1 hour. Did you finish off the ice cream at 9 PM? Maybe you had a coffee or soda a little late in the day. Don’t lie in bed thinking about these things. Beating yourself up won’t help you sleep. Just take it as a learning for the future. You can avoid the things that prevent you from sleeping.
Check out prior entries from the challenge to review some of the physical tips around preparing to sleep. You’ll find lots of tips to help you prepare for bed. The next couple days you’ll get some help with the mental aspect of this topic.