Habits for January - 5

“Everything you are used to, once done long enough, starts to seem natural, even though it might not be.”
― Julien Smith, The Flinch 

 This fourth habit is SLEEP i.e. quality, consistency and possibly, amount. That does not mean sleep 9 hours etc but to sleep at the right time and hopefully, of a higher quality. There are some useful tips here

Essential viewing:







Stolen from this site:

I believe that sleep is a much under-rated past-time. Two years ago, I wrote a blog post which punted getting more sleep as a worthwhile New Year resolution. And my recent post of 10 potential New Year resolutions also included one on getting adequate sleep. So, I was interested to see a recent study getting some attention which found that, in adolescents, setting of bedtimes by parents of midnight or later was associated with an increased risk of depression and ‘suicidal ideation’ compared to bedtimes of 10.00 pm or earlier [1]. Such ‘epidemiological’ studies cannot be used to conclude that going to bed late causes low mood and suicidal tendencies. However, it is certainly one line of evidence which suggests that getting an early night might have benefits for us.

One reason for this is that individuals going to bed earlier might simply be more likely to get adequate amounts of sleep. For most of us, especially during the working/school week, the start time for the day is relatively fixed. It’s fixed by things like getting to school, ferrying the kids to school, getting to meetings, missing the rush hour traffic etc. Because of this, most of us do not have many options to extend sleep by staying in bed. If we want to get more (and perhaps adequate levels of) sleep, going to bed earlier is the only sensible tactic for the majority of us, the majority of the time.

Some people have theorised that going to bed earlier also reaps dividends in that ‘an hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after’. Part of the reason this might be is relates to the fact that, for a given amount of sleep, going to bed earlier can mean longer spent in deeper, more restorative (non-REM) sleep. I can’t find any definitive work on this, but what I do know from my experience in practice is that individuals who shift their sleep forward a bit (so that even if they are not sleeping longer, they are sleeping earlier) almost always feel better in time for doing this. Higher levels of energy in the morning, and right throughout the day, is not an uncommon finding.

There is, in my view, another reason for going to bed earlier ” it means that we find it easier (perhaps even easy) to get up earlier too. And the benefit here? Well, individuals who get up early tend to find something useful to do with the time they have created, such as taking exercise, having or at least preparing (to eat later) breakfast, or clearing emails and other distractions to enable the day to be started with a ‘clean slate’.

Compare these useful activities with, perhaps, the activity time you may have ‘stolen’ from the late evening the day before. Because, to be frank, for many of us this will be taken up watching or drifting in and out of consciousness in front of rubbish TV, doing some mindless internet surfing or engaging in some other not very enriching activity.

If you would like to shift your sleep cycle to an earlier time, then one big tip I have for you is to start by getting up earlier than you ordinarily do now. So, if you get up at 7.30, start getting up at, say, 6.00. In a day or two you’ll likely push yourself into such extreme sleep deprivation that you’ll be forced to go to bed earlier than usual. Often, within a week or two, individuals will find themselves settling into this earlier routine and reaping the dividends that usually come with it.

In the long term, the odd late night will not hurt. However, to avoid slipping back into old habits it’s important to be quite disciplined regarding your earlier bed time. Here are a few habits that can help:

1. Set a time when you’re going to commit to turn off the TV by (e.g.10.00 pm)
2. If that’s too draconian for your partner and/or family, set a time by which you remove yourself from any room in which the TV is on
3. Perhaps better still, don’t turn on the TV in the first place
4. Set a time by which you will close down your computer, or at the very least cease on-line activity
5. Set a time by which you will stop any checking of email on a smartphone or similar device
6. Spend a few minutes planning the next day, in terms of the most important things you want to get done, and how and when you’re going to do them so that you are more likely to ‘rest in peace’.

Another habit worth getting into is to be quite disciplined in work and social situations. I was reminded of the importance of this recently during a conversation with a friend and colleague. He is an ‘early to bed’ type, who was telling me that he has quite specific strategies for dealing with evening events that are usually work-related. For example, if it’s a dinner, he sets an early start time. No ‘let’s meet at 7.30 for 8.00′ for this man. Meet times will typically be 6.30 pm. He will eat, discuss what needs to be discussed, and then has the conviction at a relatively early hour (e.g. 8.30 or 9.00 pm) to say, in effect: Thanks very much, that’s been a very useful/enjoyable/enlightening evening ” I’m going now. I know he’s true to his word on this, because I’ve witnessed him doing it several times in real life.
The result of this is that my friend rarely gets into bed later than he really wants too. But as he pointed out to me also recently, it can mean that maybe other people don’t stay up later than they want to either. Because, it’s not uncommonly the case that the reason events go on late into the evening is because no-one wants to be the first person to leave. My friend doesn’t have any inhibition about this, and because of this can ‘liberate’ his friends and colleagues earlier than they otherwise would be.

So, when in such situations yourself, you might like to do yourself (and your friends and colleagues) a big favour by meeting early, and leaving at a sociable hour too.

An important article to read. 

How to be an early riser:

1. Greet the day. I love being able to get up, and greet a wonderful new day. I suggest creating a morning ritual that includes saying thanks for your blessings. I’m inspired by the Dalai Lama, who said, ” Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’ “
2. Amazing start. I used to start my day by jumping out of bed, late as usual, and rushing to get myself and the kids ready, and rushing to drop them to school and come in to work late. I would walk into work, looking rumpled and barely awake, grumpy and behind everyone else. Not a great start to your day. Now, I have a renewing morning ritual, I’ve gotten so much done before 8 a.m., my kids are early and so am I, and by the time everyone else gets in to work, I’ve already gotten a head start. There is no better way to start off your day than to wake early, in my experience.
3. Quietude. No kids yelling, no babies crying, no soccer balls, no cars, no television noise. The early morning hours are so peaceful, so quiet. It’s my favorite time of day. I truly enjoy that time of peace, that time to myself, when I can think, when I can read, when I can breathe.
4. Sunrise. People who wake late miss one of the greatest feats of nature, repeated in full stereovision each and every day — the rise of the sun. I love how the day slowly gets brighter, when the midnight blue turns to lighter blue, when the brilliant colors start to seep into the sky, when nature is painted in incredible colors. I like doing my early morning run during this time, and I look up at the sky as I run and say to the world, “What a glorious day!” Really. I really do that. Corny, I know.
5. Breakfast. Rise early and you actually have time for breakfast. I’m told it’s one of the most important meals of the day. Without breakfast, your body is running on fumes until you are so hungry at lunchtime that you eat whatever unhealthy thing you can find. The fattier and sugarier, the betterier. But eat breakfast, and you are sated until later. Plus, eating breakfast while reading my book and drinking my coffee in the quiet of the morning is eminently more enjoyable than scarfing something down on the way to work, or at your desk.
6. Exercise. There are other times to exercise besides the early morning, of course, but I’ve found that while exercising right after work is also very enjoyable, it’s also liable to be canceled because of other things that come up. Morning exercise is virtually never canceled.
7. Productivity. Mornings, for me at least, are the most productive time of day. I like to do some writing in the morning, when there are no distractions, before I check my email or blog stats. I get so much more done by starting on my work in the morning. Then, when evening rolls around, I have no work that I need to do, and I can spend it with family.
8. Goal time. Got goals? Well, you should. And there’s no better time to review them and plan for them and do your goal tasks than first thing. You should have one goal that you want to accomplish this week. And every morning, you should decide what one thing you can do today to move yourself further towards that goal. And then, if possible, do that first thing in the morning.
9. Commute. No one likes rush-hour traffic, except for Big Oil. Commute early, and the traffic is much lighter, and you get to work faster, and thus save yourself more time. Or better yet, commute by bike. (Or even better yet, work from home.)
10. Appointments. It’s much easier to make those early appointments on time if you get up early. Showing up late for those appointments is a bad signal to the person you’re meeting. Showing up early will impress them. Plus, you get time to prepare.

How to Become an Early Riser

• Don’t make drastic changes. Start slowly, by waking just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this for a few days. Then cut back another 15 minutes. Do this gradually until you get to your goal time.
• Allow yourself to sleep earlier. You might be used to staying up late, perhaps watching TV or surfing the Internet. But if you continue this habit, while trying to get up earlier, sooner or later one is going to give. And if it is the early rising that gives, then you will crash and sleep late and have to start over. I suggest going to bed earlier, even if you don’t think you’ll sleep, and read while in bed. If you’re really tired, you just might fall asleep much sooner than you think.
• Put your alarm clock far from you bed. If it’s right next to your bed, you’ll shut it off or hit snooze. Never hit snooze. If it’s far from your bed, you have to get up out of bed to shut it off. By then, you’re up. Now you just have to stay up.
• Go out of the bedroom as soon as you shut off the alarm. Don’t allow yourself to rationalize going back to bed. Just force yourself to go out of the room. My habit is to stumble into the bathroom and go pee. By the time I’ve done that, and flushed the toilet and washed my hands and looked at my ugly mug in the mirror, I’m awake enough to face the day.
• Do not rationalize. If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you’ll never do it. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.
• Have a good reason. Set something to do early in the morning that’s important. This reason will motivate you to get up. I like to write in the morning, so that’s my reason. Also, when I’m done with that, I like to read all of your comments!
• Make waking up early a reward. Yes, it might seem at first that you’re forcing yourself to do something hard, but if you make it pleasurable, soon you will look forward to waking up early. A good reward is to make a hot cup of coffee or tea and read a book. Other rewards might be a tasty treat for breakfast (smoothies! yum!) or watching the sunrise, or meditating. Find something that’s pleasurable for you, and allow yourself to do it as part of your morning routine.
• Take advantage of all that extra time. Don’t wake up an hour or two early just to read your blogs, unless that’s a major goal of yours. Don’t wake up early and waste that extra time. Get a jump start on your day! I like to use that time to get a head start on preparing my kids’ lunches, on planning for the rest of the day (when I set my MITs), on exercising or meditating, and on reading. By the time 6:30 rolls around, I’ve done more than many people do the entire day.

 The above was stolen from this site

Things to do Before Bed to Sleep Better

1. Eat a light dinner before 7 PM each night. Modern way of life seems to leave little time for a proper lunch these days. So most people eat a big breakfast, skip lunch or skimp on it, and end up having a big dinner before they go to sleep. This means we’re not using the body’s generation of digestive juices during its peak time, which is mid-day. Instead we’re trying to push our bodies to digest big meals when it’s least equipped to do that: when it’s getting ready to go to sleep or when it’s still trying to wake up. It’s not easy to change our life-long habits, but this is an important one to change. A couple of suggestions to help create this habit:

• Make lunch a priority during your daytime schedule. Eat a bigger lunch, so you’re not starving by the end of the day.
• A bowl of soup is warm and comforting for dinner, but not heavy in your belly.

2. Avoid electronics in your bedroom. That means no TV, no computers, no phones. All of these screens have a way of stimulating the senses at the end of the day, when we should be settling down our minds and bodies. The back-lighting in all those smart screens so close to our faces in the dark makes the sleep-inducing melatonin to slow down. Try to get all your TV, laptop and phone checking done outside of the bedroom before a certain time, before you get to bed. A couple of suggestions to make this a habit:

• Set a reminder for when you need to turn off everything by say, 9:30 PM.
• Shutting down the appliances completely hinders the temptation to “just check one last time.”

3. Massage your limbs. This is a pleasant activity before bedtime, to help induce a sense of relaxation in your body, but also your mind. It’s an effective way to reduce stress at the end of the day, any headaches or tension pains, and also insomnia. It would be great to have a willing partner to help you with a massage, but you can do this yourself too. Pour a small amount of oil into your palm, and rub it into your legs – from above your knees down to each toe, and into your arms – from your shoulders to each finger. Use long, easy strokes as you gently rub in the oil. A couple of helpful tips to make this a nightly routine:

• Use a light, non-staining oil, like sweet almond, or jojoba.
• Add a few drops of essential oils, like lavender or rosemary, that are said to be soothing on the nerves.

4. A cup of tea, or warm milk before bed. You may or may not need this tip, but if you’re still feeling awake and hungry past 10 PM, craving for something to eat while you ease into your new habits, a cup of warm milk might help soothe that craving. Chamomile tea, or other sleep inducing teas are also a good idea for this time of night. A couple of hints and suggestions:

• Avoid alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine after 7 PM.
• If you must eat something, eat a few dried cherries and / or dates, that are supposed to induce natural sleep.

5. Deep breathing or meditation. To help wind down your body and mind, turn off all the lights at 10 PM. If you live in the city, put in ear plugs to cut out noises. Adjust your room, your nightwear and your blankets so that you feel balanced - not too warm or not too cold. If you’re familiar with meditation, you can create your own ritual that helps you sleep. A couple of meditation techniques that help induce sleep:

• Deep breathing: Lie down comfortably. Place your hands on your belly. Deepen your breathing to a point where you feel your abdomen rise up and down with your breaths. Focus on your breaths. This will help keep your mind off your problems and thoughts. If you catch your mind wandering, simply bring it back to your breath. This practice is very calming, and will slowly induce sleep as your mind relaxes.
• Counting sheep: yes, it works. It doesn’t have to be sheep – you can count your exhale breaths each time you breathe out, and visualize yourself going deeper and deeper into sleep. This is almost hypnotic and very calming.

Things to do in the Morning to Wake up Fresher

6. Wake up at the same time every morning. If you fall into a pattern of getting to bed at a certain time every night, your body will fall into a natural rhythm of tuning itself to nature’s days and nights. This means that your body will wake up at the same time naturally every morning. Ayurveda recommends that we stay in tune with nature’s cycles as much as possible. How you start your morning sets the tone for the rest of your day. A couple of considerations to take into account:

• If you do need an alarm clock to wake you up, choose one that has a gentle, non-invasive sound that doesn’t jar you awake.
• When you open your eyes, don’t jump out of bed. Take the time to remember any dreams, notice how your body feels, and stretch your limbs gently before you get out of bed.

7. Greet the sun every morning. In our modern way of life, we take no time to take in some sun each morning. We go from the house to the garage, in our cars, and work in encased artificially lit buildings all day long. According to Ayurveda, sunlight has a supremely empowering effect on all of creation. There is an energy in the atmosphere at sunrise that comes to us free and cheap, if only we remember to make use of it. So make it a routine to get some early morning sunshine every day to get your body back in balance. A couple of ideas to get some sun on work mornings:

• Make it a ritual to see the sunrise. This can be a time to consider your blessings, plan your day ahead, and build in a pause into your day, rather than hit it running.
• A short walk at sunrise. Do you walk your dogs? Walk to work? Or simply like to get some invigorating fresh air in the mornings? If so, time it with the sunrise. You’ll notice what a difference it will make.

8. Hydrate your body. After a night of sleeping indoors, under blankets, the trapped heat and sweat dries out your mouth and your body. Ayurveda says how you start your morning helps set the mood with how the rest of your day goes. So start off by re-hydrating and re-energizing yourself for the oncoming day. A couple of ideas to re-hydrate:

• Splash your face with cool water when you roll out of bed. Wash your eyes while they’re slightly open – be very gentle. Also rinse out your mouth. Repeat a few times.
• Sip a glass of warm water. Add some lime or lemon to reinvigorate and stimulate your digestion and to wake you up.

9. How about some yoga? Now I may be pushing it – who has time for yoga in the mornings, right? However, Ayurveda prescribes that early morning is the best time for yoga, to activate and energize your body and mind. If you don’t have time for an hour or 30 minutes, consider doing a few stretches, or a couple of rounds of sun salutations. Similar to the previous tip, this builds a pause into your day, make you meet the day deliberately, rather than trying to play catch up. A couple of suggestions to build this into your morning routine:

• Believe it or not, it all starts with going to bed early enough to wake up early. Once you get your ideal amount of sleep each night, your body is ready to go in the mornings.
• If you’re not into yoga, use your favorite exercise routine during this time. Tai Chi, walking, running, or climbing stairs are all great alternatives.

10. Eat a light breakfast. This goes along with what I said above about having a big lunch. Before noon, your body is simply not ready or active enough to handle a big breakfast. It will make you feel dull and sluggish, rather than wake you up. Instead, have a small breakfast before 9 AM that will activate your digestive juices but not overload the system. A couple of suggestions for a light breakfast:

• A piece of fruit, a cup of yogurt, or a small bowl of granola is plenty for your morning meal
• Don’t snack between breakfast and lunch.