Mrs. Smith Musings - Sleep Issues and Fine Tuning

The past week, I've struggled with waking up on time. My oldest cat, Yuki, insists on waking me up by meowing anywhere from 5am to 6am. She won't stop unless I get up and feed her. I'm not convinced that getting an automated feeder would help the issue, since she would just meow once she runs out of food.

So my problem has now become that I set my alarm for 6am (10PM-6AM should be 8 hours of sleep), and am jipped of 45-60 minutes of good sleep because of the cat. Oddly, I am surprisingly alert when I wake up to feed her and it takes me a while to fall back to sleep. When my alarm does go off, I reset it for later because I feel incredibly tired.

I got to wondering this morning if maybe Yuki's trigger for meowing at me isn't her hunger, but my moving around. If so, that would explain my alertness, and how she wakes me so easily with just a few soft meows.

If that is the case, then clearly that would be when I should naturally get up and I'm not honoring my body when I go back to sleep.

So, I am going to try to stay up when this happens again and see how it feels to have free time in the morning. I'll be interested to see if I am sharper getting up and staying up as compared to when I've gone back to bed.

I will report back!

Week 18 Review

Fixes:

• Sliding back into snacking territory.
• Snacking affects food habits as well as sleep habits. So it is time to stop the snacking again.
• It's funny - my mom remarked in February how I never used to sit and eat chips in front of the TV. You're right, Mom. It's a bad, bad habit.
• Letting the sugar invade again.
• Get back out of the "treat"/"I deserve this" mindset. I am not a dog to be rewarded with food.
• Sleep
• My sleep has been somewhat low-quality of late.
• Reserve the bed for ONLY sleeping. Not reading or playing on my phone.
• Stay awake the first time I am woken (usually between 5:30 and 6:00am by the cat). If I go back to sleep, it will mess with my circadian rhythm and make me groggy.
• Get up at the same time every day, even on the weekends.
• Exercise
• Pretty good in Week 18, but the current Week 19, I am struggling. So as I fix the above items, focus on not slacking in the movement department.
• Need to incorporate my stretches every evening as part of winding down for bed.
• I have noticed in the past day or so that I am feeling very thick and bloated. This happens for two reasons 1) I am eating poorly (see above) and 2) I am about to go on my cycle, so I should avoid eating poorly and instead up my fat intake.

Week 17 Review