go to bed earlier

but not giving up.

would be head on the pillow by 10pm. A few weeks ago I decided I could live with 11pm as a starter. But I’m not even getting close. The last several weeks I’ve been averaging 12:45 to 1:00am. Some things that would help:

• leave my office earlier
• make sure the TV is off at 10pm (some days I do okay on this, others not)
• quickly follow the new bedtime routine I’ve set up for myself – no dawdling
• if it’s late maybe skip the reading I do after I climb into bed

Once I get into bed and put down the book I always fall asleep quickly.

this goal to my #1 position on my list. This has been the hardest one for me to conquer and it’s feeling kind of hopeless right now. But it’s also the most important for me to turn around because so many of my other goals hinge on it. In fact I feel my health is dependent on it.

Eight hours of sleep, 7 days in a row. What would that look like?? I imagine it would be a much better experience than what I’ve been doing. Think how sharp I would be, how healthy I would feel, how much energy I would have. And I would probably be in a good mood to boot!

is a baaaad combination. To start with I was having a rough day with work today and getting pretty stressed.

At one point this afternoon I had to take a break and go to the driver license place to see about a replacement/renewal. At the counter I went to pull out my license and it wasn’t with me. (That’s how I keep losing it, I take it out to put it in another wallet that I take walking with me, and it doesn’t always make it back to my “regular” wallet.)

“No problem” says the clerk at the counter. Tell me your name. They don’t need your license, right, because they can just put in your name and pull your picture up on their computer. So I gave my name, spelling the last name carefully.

The clerk says “no, that’s not right.” What??? She must’ve typed it in wrong, it is a difficult name to spell. So I tell her my last name again and spell it … slowly. Still it didn’t come up! Oh no, how would I prove who I was?

I have a backup ID in my wallet from a military installation that I got for helping my Mom. It’s expired but it has my picture and name so I could show her who I was. I pulled out the card and looked at my name. That’s when I figured it out…. I had given her my maiden name, not my married name!!

It’s not like I got married last month or something, I’ve been married for 20 years. But I momentarily forgot my own name. I was sooo embarrassed! Fortunately when the clerk put in my correct name, I explained what that other name was and my own picture showed up on her screen and everything was fine.

In my own defense I do use my maiden name as my middle name, so it is part of my name that I use frequently (I always sign with all 3 names for example). And I think I came up with that name because I was at the licensing place and I still have memorized my driver license number from when I was single (in Washington your last name is part of the license number).

To cap things off of course they took a new driver license photo and this one is nothing short of hideous. At some point this license may get “lost” again.

that today (March 9) is the last day of National Sleep Awareness Week? The National Sleep Foundation’s web site has some great sleep tips here.

A few days ago I managed my goal to head for bed between 9:30 and 10 – once. I need to get to a place where this can happen more regularly, but looks like this one is going to take baby steps. I just added the goal to get to bed on time 2 nights in a row. It’s not going to happen tonight (darn Daylight Saving Time!) but maybe tomorrow I can start again.

• I wouldn’t make mistakes like forgetting to call my mother to check on her
• People wouldn’t ask me if I’m all right at the end of the day because I look like warmed over death
• My heart would be healther and my blood pressure would be lower
• I would be more productive
• It would be much easier to form other good habits
• I would eat less
• I would spend less money on parking (driving to work) and food (eating out)
• It would be easier to make decisions and sort my priorities
• It would be easier to get the exercise I need
• I would move faster when doing every day tasks like getting ready for work

This is my #1 priority right now – even above the walking goal. I’m struggling with exhaustion too much of the time. As I get older my body is less resilient and it’s not going to put up with this much longer.

I thought about doing a 30 day challenge like with my walking, but I can’t even seem to get a single night of going to bed early under my belt. So I’m going to start with “Turn off the TV and start my bedtime routine by 9:30 or 10 – just once.” We’ll see how it goes from there.

I’m starting to figure out this is never going to happen until I decide that going to bed earlier is more important to me than the alternatives. And I need to be reminded of that at bedtime not in the morning when I feel awful.

That means this has to be more important than that TV show I’ve got to see or any of the other stuff I promised myself I would get done before the day was over.

Last night I was up until 1am. It’s time for change.