Restful Nights and Bright, Bright Sunshine-y Days

I’ve written a bit about my struggles with insomnia lately – and I’m still really not sure what’s going on. I had originally attributed it to my East Coast travel, but last Friday morning I woke up at 3:30am East Coast time (or 1:30am Mountain Time) and couldn’t get back to sleep. So clearly, the cross-country travel isn’t the issue, and I’m not sure what is.

But the truly weird thing is, the lack of sleep didn’t really bother me too much. This will surprise anyone who knows me well, as usually if I get anything less than 7 hours, I’m a grumpy, exhausted nightmare. Last week, though, things were pretty good! I wasn’t nearly as tired as I’d expect to be for so much missing sleep, and I was also in a really fantastic mood all week. I think a lot of that may be due to the fact that I’m still trying to eat (mostly) healthy and exercise daily no matter what, but I am also going to attribute at least some of it to the fact that I’m getting fabulous sunshine in both Colorado and Florida.

This past week, though, the insomnia largely went away… perhaps partially due to two tips I picked up from Tim Ferriss’ Tools of the Titans, a 708 page tome I’m currently slogging through. (Lots of gems, but also lots of info that doesn’t interest me as well.) Ferriss recommended Yogi Caramel Bedtime Tea, claiming that it knocks him out within minutes of drinking. Well, combine that sleepy power with my favorite flavor (caramel) and I’m sold! Unfortunately, the grocery stores in my area didn’t have the caramel flavor, but I found the regular Yogi Bedtime Tea and have been drinking it most nights before bed. I also found out on the product website that Whole Foods sells the caramel flavor, and while I normally don’t shop there (expensive!) I’m planning to head there tomorrow to pick that flavor up too.

Ferriss also recommended sudoku as a great way to calm your mind and shut out distractions before bed, so I’ve been doing that on my Kindle. (In conjunction with the Twilight app, of course.) One game on the advanced level takes me 5-10 minutes, and usually by the end of it my eyes are closing! I really miss reading before bed, but this seems to be doing the trick.

I haven’t fully gotten a routine down for the time zone changes, but I’m doing a little better on that front. On my Thursday night return from Florida, I connect through Dallas, and then it’s a quick 75 minute flight from there home. The last two weeks, I’ve taken to keeping my laptop shut and sleeping on that entire flight, which helps make up for the sleep I would normally miss on Thursday nights. (I get home around 11pm and have 6am meetings on Friday mornings.) That helps a lot! I’m home until Monday this weekend, rather than leaving Sunday afternoon, so I’m hoping to sleep in till 7am or so tomorrow and get on a normal Colorado schedule for these few days. We shall see!

TGIF, everyone 🙂