I remember when I was an adolescent, I really looked forward to summers, so I could sleep in, avoid structure, and languish in having no homework or major responsibilities (other than a summer job). But then, about 4 weeks into summer, I would get bored and look forward to going to back to school. Anyone else experience that?
Most humans seem to think life would be so grand if there were no structure, you could sleep as much or whenever you wanted, and your days were your own. What science tells us is very different, though. While that life sounds awesome for many, it doesn't contribute to our well-being the way we think it would. In the short term, anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on your personality, it does 'feel' nice to abandon structure and do what you want. But the joy of that experience tends to dissipate pretty quickly (again, times vary based on personality).
The current pandemic and civil unrest have caused a lot of chaos for our routines, and probably for our sleeping patterns, too. There is no way around this - our routines are a mess, aren't they? I don't know what your routine was like pre-pandemic, but I had a nice one. Early morning walk or run, followed by coffee, morning meditation and hygiene, then off to campus for a fulfilling day of teaching, mentoring, grading, and researching. Next, home or gym for some yoga or strength training, dinner, some social media, maybe a little TV, more work (grading, writing, research planning), then bed. Next day, rinse and repeat. Weekends were for cleaning and organizing, cooking, and hiking or longer trail runs. Wow, now that I see that in print, it sounds rather boring, but it wasn't!
March 13 was my last day on campus, and little did I know how much my routine was about to change! Now, it is home. Home. Home. Home. Work from home. Eat at home. Work out at home. Walk outside around home. Home. Home. Home.
Being home so much is new to a lot of us, and it feels less like a routine and more like one long, very long, weekday. You may never feel like you have left work, or left home. Work is always a step away, maybe calling to your conscience to tend to it, and home surrounds you, reminding you to do the laundry, wash the dishes, take care of..... You get the idea. So, this doesn't feel like routine, does it? And when the lines between work and home are blurred, it is also difficult to sleep, the right amount and at the right time.
What we need to do is consciously tend to our sleeping habits and our lack of clear structure, so that we can feel a sense of pride or accomplishment in getting work done, if we are working from home, feel better about walking away from it and being 'home' from work, and setting some guidelines for when and how long we sleep. While we all have probably been told that we need about 8 hours of sleep each night, there is a little more to the research than that. First of all, our sleep cycles, for healthy adults, run in 90 minute cycles when we are napping or trying to get a night of sleep. Our best, well rested bout of sleep will coincide with those 90 minute cycles so we wake up when a cycle is about over, and we are in a lighter stage of sleep. This means getting 7 1/2 or 9 hours of sleep, not 8. Also, sleep research indicates that for healthy adults, getting an average of 6.5-8.5 hours of sleep each night is best. Anything less than or more than that is detrimental to our mental and physical health. Our sleep patterns influence our metabolism, our motivational tendencies, our memory, our ability to focus, and so many other things. So, getting too little, or too much can impact our weight and our body's ability to metabolize food to use for energy, our ability to focus attention, to think/learn/remember, or to manage our stress and moods. Finally, our body has a natural circadian rhythm that is tied to the earth's rotation - we sleep best when it is dark outside. So, while you might feel tempted like a teenager to stay up late at night and sleep in the next morning, this probably won't bode well for your functioning or well-being.
So, while we may like to toss routine to the wind, like an extended vacation experience, I encourage you, the science of well-being encourages you, to avoid that temptation. Make a routine for yourself, which includes regular sleep hygiene. Get up the same time each morning, and go to bed around the same time each night. Plan your day so you have some work time, and some down time (I know, our down time does NOT look the way it used to pre-pandemic), if you are working. If you are not working, it is still important to plan your days, whatever that means for you. Then plan some social time with others, with technology or by physically distancing. Plan some time outside each day, and plan some time to do something you enjoy, like a hobby or remote service to others.
Sleep hygiene research suggests:
1. Don't take technology to bed with you. Avoid using it 60 minutes before planned bedtime.
2. Don't use your sleeping space for anything else but rest - it isn't a workspace.
3. Try to go to bed and rise up at the same time, planning for around 7.5 hours, but no more than 8.5.
4. Remember the sleep cycle formula- try to sleep in 90 minute increments.
5. Don't eat right before you go to bed, or drink caffeine.
6. Minimize alcohol intake, as alcohol can inhibit or disrupt sleep.
If you are interested, there are websites that can help you plan your bedtime/rising time based on sleep cycles. Here is one: sleepcalculator.com
Today's task for your well-being is to develop structure in your daily life, and to cultivate good sleep hygiene. Practice the steps above for good sleep hygiene. Remember, some structure is good for all of us. Some people like a lot of structure, others not so much. I like a little structure that allows me to introduce variation without causing chaos. For instance, I drive different routes to pick up my curbside grocery orders, I vary my home workout routines, and when I go on trail runs (oh, how I miss them), I mix them up quite a bit so I don't run the same route very often. Finally, make sure you are practicing good sleep routines: try to avoid changing your bed time/rising time too much from what they were pre-pandemic, and shoot for 90 minute sleep cycles with about 5-6 full cycles each night.
Take care!
