Reply To: Sleep Timing Issues

[Holleyanne McDaniel]

I’m a night owl by nature, too. And left to my own devices, I turn largely nocturnal – high school summers I often got up in the afternoon, ate dinner with my family, and then stayed up till 4-5a.

But I think you might be dealing with 2 separate things – your sleep timing not matching the modern world and maybe also insomnia? I struggle with both, and have found that treating the insomnia is key, otherwise I’ll just keep getting shorter and shorter on sleep. I now have a combination of anti-anxiety and sleep medications that allow me to usually get a decent night’s sleep.

One non-medication thing that has helped me is switching my lights to automated ones and setting patterns. I use Wyze brand, but there are various options available at different price points. The key would be making sure that they offer some form of automation.

I have my bedroom lights come on gradually in the morning (in the winter, my sunlamp as well). In the afternoon when I don’t get as much sunlight in my office, I have extra lights turn on. In the evening, around 9p, I have half my lights turn off and the remaining ones shift to a yellower light. And then they go to half at 10:45p, 1% at 11p, and completely off at 11:30p. It isn’t always effective, there are sometimes I’m still on my phone well after the lights go off, but I do find that overall, my sleep schedule is better with the automation than without.

One somewhat encouraging thing – studies have shown that even if you can’t sleep, lying down with the intention to rest does significantly help your body even when you can’t sleep. Like reaction times, focus, things like that. I know how hard that can be to do when you feel like you’re wide awake.