So last night I went to bed at 12:15 and got up at 6:00am, giving me a sleep window of 5:45. I was awake for a lot of the night though so I need to reduce this window to 5 hours I think. I could do 12:15 to 5:15. It’s hard to stay up much later than 12:15. I feel tired but good today- I’m in a good mood, and for me, I’m just the usual amount of tired- which is better than when I have a bad night’s sleep (by my standards). Some new ideas I’ve had- start eating sleep promoting foods in addition to supplements (food always trumps supplements). It’s important to note, that in studies, it has taken up to a month for foods to improve sleep. So, without further ado, I reveal my latest pre-bed meal about 1-2 hours before bed: one kiwi fruit, one glass of tart cherry juice, one handful of almonds and one whole-wheat cracker with nut butter. This will boost my levels of serotonin, tryptophan, magnesium, and melatonin- all important factors in sleep. Kiwi fruits boost serotonin and tryptophan, cherry juice boosts melatonin, almonds boost melatonin and magnesium, and whole-wheat crackers boost serotonin and tryptophan. I’m setting myself up for success here.

I’m feeling pretty buggered today. Last night I went to bed at 1:10pm and got up at 6:00am, so I was only in bed for 4 hours and 50 minutes. I also woke up at 5:00 and took 20 minutes to fall asleep so I got a total of 3.5 hours sleep. Now my sleep drive is quite high and I’m rather tired. I’m looking forward to just hitting the pillow and falling asleep tonight. I’m struggling to find things to do to keep myself up until 12:30 (I’ve changed my sleep time to 12:30 as today I reviewed my sleep diaries and realised I’m sleeping around 3.5-4.5 hours a night so I am going to try a sleep window of 5.5 hours for a week and then I will review that in a weeks time). I guess I’ll just watch tv. In an hour from now I am going to eat a kiwi fruit and have a glass of cherry juice as suggested by research. I will also take an antihistamine tonight. Hopefully, my sleep will be a better deeper tonight without alcohol and to make up for the light sleep last night. I am so brave for doing this. I am doing it because I love myself and want future Billy to have a good quality of life.

God I am brave. So, last night I turned off screens 1 hour before bed and drank cherry juice. I fell asleep in under 45 minutes. My sleep efficiency is pretty poor so I think I’ll get up at 5:45 (setting a 5:30 alarm to take the caffeine pill) to be even more hardcore and eventually increase my sleep efficiency. I will also start setting 40 minute alarms, as I no longer want my brain to associate spending time in bed with wakefulness. I am done with that. Today, I am tired but wired but still am in a good mood and have enough energy to get on with the day. Luckily, I’m sick atm so can’t workout. By tomorrow I should be better and then my sleep will be better tonight so by tomorrow I can pair sleep restriction therapy, stimulus control, and exercise for a dangerous combination. Keep being disciplined and brave, you can do this!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton