Week of Sleep

Journal entries & Reflection

My Initial Questions:

-          I am doing my experiment on the affects sleeping will have on my daily productivity. I want to find out what is a good time range for me to try to go to sleep, while still being able to get my studies in and relax time. This will be a challenge for me, because I play football and it commands a lot of time out of my day. I feel this will be a trial and error type of experiment, because I will try different times to begin falling sleep and incorporate that in with balancing my allotted study and free/relax time.

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Nov. 7, 2016:

-          So, it’s the first day of my experiment and I’m excited to see how this experiment turns out. Today has been going by pretty smoothly, I had a 6am work out, school and practice.  I’m feeling pretty tired, so I am hoping I fall asleep quickly tonight. I have decided to start to go to bed at 10:00pm and just seeing where that takes me. I hope the week goes by painlessly.  

Nov. 8, 2016:

-          Monday night I tried going to sleep at 10:00pm, but I found myself beginning to nod off around 10:30pm. All through the night I kept waking up and it just seemed like my body was not tired at all. The next morning, I had to get up at 7:00am to get ready for my class at 8:00am. I felt extremely tired and all I wanted to do was sleep. I could barely stay awake in my classes throughout the day and I felt drained of all energy. I tried eating to see if that could boost my energy levels, but that didn’t really help and I even tried to eat candy to give myself a sugar rush, but all that did was make me even more tired when it wore off. I think maybe my body was just tense last night and that’s why I couldn’t sleep. So tonight, I will try cutting into free time and stretch before bed, but still go to bed at 10:00pm.

Nov. 9, 2016:

-           Tuesday night went pretty-good, I started stretching around 9:30pm. I did some static stretches like, toe-touches, feet apart toe-touches, butterfly stretch, sumo stretch, right and left arm across the body and then I did this three times in a row, holding for ten seconds. I finished around 9:45, which gave me 15 minutes to just relax before bed. When 10:00pm rolled around I felt pretty tired and soon fell asleep around 10:15. I woke up once in the middle of the night, but other than that I slept like a baby. During the day, my energy was better, in some instances I got a little drowsy, but over much better. I didn’t feel like I needed a sugar rush to stay awake. For Wednesday night, I think I will try the same routine, but this time I will try to see if being on my phone will have any effect on me. 

Nov. 10, 2016:

-          Having the phone was a horrible idea! Oh, my gosh, never doing that again. I did everything the same as Tuesday night, but this time when bed time came I tried just playing on my phone until I fell asleep and may I say that was the worst decision I have ever made in my life. When I finally felt tired of being on my phone I looked at the time and it was 12:00am. I don’t know where the time had gone, but I needed it back and I needed it now. So, after I realized what time it was, I got off my phone and fell asleep around 12:30am. The next morning, I felt every hour that I had lost. I fell asleep in two classes and was dragging during football practice. Tonight, I will go back to my regular schedule without the phone and hopefully catch up on my sleep.

Nov. 11, 2016

-          Thursday night went well as expected. I slept great and didn’t wake up once. The next day when I woke up I felt refreshed and ready for the day. I was able to produce better in class and practice and my appetite wasn’t so overbearing that all I thought about was food. I think I am going to continue this routine for the rest of the week and just see if there are any more changes I notice over the last couple of days.

Nov. 12, 2016:

-          Friday night I continued to sleep like a baby. During the day, I noticed I was just in an over-all better mood. I felt naturally energetic, like I was having a sugar rush without the sugar, (It might have also been because it was game day, but I’m going go with it was all due to sleep). I also noticed I wasn’t having the same aches and pains I usually wake up with after practice. They disappeared and I never want to see them again. I will still be continuing my routine and excited to see what other changes happen after my last night of the experiment.

Nov. 13, 2016:  

-          Well, my last night of the experiment went perfect as planned. I Fell asleep effortlessly and woke up feeling as if I was asleep for a whole day.  I walked in the bathroom today and I also noticed my facial acne was clearing up a little and I felt taller. I probably didn’t grow, but it felt as if I did. My body seems to be loving this new sleep regiment and so am I. I think am going to continue this routine from now on. Seems to be helping me a lot.

New Additional questions:

-          I am starting to wonder is sleep the key to a better life? Could sleep be the cure all that most people are missing out on? I guess I’ll have to keep this going to find out.

Reflection:

-          To reflect on this experiment, I want to start by saying this is the best change I have ever made in my life. I think I grew from this experiment quite literally and figuratively. I learned that I am a person who must have some sort of down time or I won’t fill comfortable enough to go to sleep. So, I feel like that threw a curve into my experiment, which helped make it more personal. The beginning of the experiment was rough. I hated how tired I was and being so tired changed how I acted toward different situations and people. I had a very short temper with people and could only give minimal effort to my daily tasks. My workouts and practices seemed so long and miserable. I hated waking up and I had to force myself out of bed. This was my daily life and I needed a better way. This experiment helped me find it. Through this experiment, I found my joy to wake up and get out of bed in the morning. I found myself in a better mindset and a more positive attitude toward everything. As I said in my experiment my acne cleared up some and I even felt taller. I could not ask for better. Once I found my routine the week just flew by. I do think that I could maybe have even better results if I combined my new routine with a better breakfast. Which is a key to performing better in sports per, easacademy.org and want to find out. That will have to be another experiment for the future. So, overall I say I chose a pretty good experiment and I loved my results.

Work Cited:

Dr. Ivy L, John, “Why Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal of The Day” EAS Academy. Nov. 12, 2016, online.

Link:

http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/why-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-of-the-day-eas-academy