Sleep and Waking
My insomnia (the staying-asleep kind, not the falling-asleep kind) has gotten so bad that I’ve taken to covering up the clock in my bedroom so I can’t see it when I wake up during the night.
When I went to a sleep clinic a few years ago they told me that with clocks available in the bedroom we wake more often and sleep less as we constantly want to check the time. So I’ve taken that ability away from myself, because waking at 3 a.m. and then worrying about why I am awake at 3 a.m. and how I am going to get enough sleep and what I will feel like the next morning, etc. does seem to exacerbate the problem. Since this change I haven’t been waking up as much in the early morning, or if I do I just roll over and go back to sleep. That’s good. But even with the clock not available, I still wake up at 5:57 a.m. (+/- a few minutes) every weekday morning. Not only does it suck to be awake 3-4 minutes before the alarm, it leads me to believe that I am not sleeping as deeply overnight, since something in my brain holds me poised and ready for wake-up even if my alarm doesn’t work.
I can’t be sleeping well if part of my brain is staying tuned-in to the time, even in the absence of a clock. Can I?
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