Lights, sleep, to-do lists

[holdouttrout]

I managed to do light therapy twice this week, including right now. Clearly, my "routine" isn't what I thought it was.


I could definitely put the thing in my bathroom because I spend a decent amount of time there, first thing... except that I can't figure out a way to actually put it in the bathroom safely, in the right spot. Theoretically, I could just set a little light timer to go sit at my table but I'm historically bad at adding that kind of habit.


In other frustrating things from the week, my sleep has been a little terrible. I'm having trouble making myself go to bed, and then I still wake up early, which is on time for me. Last night I definitely felt the lack. I will try to trick myself this week by telling myself I'm just getting ready for bed early and don't have to actually go to bed until I want. I've had some success with that in the past.

The last part of this post was going to be complaining about my to-do list and how I didn't want to do anything on it... but the light therapy might actually be working on that one, because I'm going to go make myself breakfast. :-)

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Re: lightbox timing -- useful thing to know: it helps set your internal clock, so if possible use it at the time that you want your body to decide is "first thing in the morning".

I will try to trick myself this week by telling myself I'm just getting ready for bed early and don't have to actually go to bed until I want.

My best ever trick (life-changingly good, in my case) has been to replace the bulb in my bedside light with an orange one, put f.lux or other blue-light-filtering programmes on all my tech, and then decree that I have to be in bed and in the dark (apart from aforementioned light) by a certain time but I can do WHATEVER I WANT there (read books, listen to podcasts, whatever) and don't have to try to sleep until I feel sleepy.

[holdouttrout]

Genius - I'm really trying hard to give myself "Nighttime" vibes with soft, warm light and a bedtime routine... and it works as long as I get off the nice, warm couch. I think this could be a good hack for me, too!

[rydra_wong]

Yeah, I'm pretty light-sensitive so the light-adjustments (and occasional melatonin) are enough to ensure I DO get sleepy after a while, but the permission to consume media rather than just lying there grimly Trying To Go To Sleep meant that I stopped dreading it and it became far easier to make myself go to bed, because now it's nice reading/podcast time! Which is relaxing, which also makes it much easier to get sleepy.