On sleeping (or not)

I've been using Sleep Cycle for about six months now (click here for a more detailed review of Sleep Cycle).  After half a year's worth of data, I'm beginning to see certain patterns.  Specifically, my average night's sleep is about six and a half hours.  What's scary about that is how many nights I must be getting considerably less than six hours, in order to balance out the nights when I get more.

There are other trends that are worrisome.

The well-rested writer

I've been fairly sleep deprived so far this year.  I used to get eight or nine hours a night, easy, but I've struggled with getting enough sleep for the last year or so.  When I freelanced full-time it wasn't an issue, or even when I just worked my nanny job in the afternoons; but I worked a lot of hours at my nanny job last summer, and I've worked a lot since the start of the year, too.  And the way it's looking, I won't see a reprieve for a few more months, since I'm working a lot more hours this summer, too.

So I was amused to see this article pop up on my Facebook feed today:

Short On Sleep? You Could Be A Disaster Waiting To Happen

Heaven knows, I certainly feel like a disaster waiting to happen some days!

Daylight Savings Time starts Sunday

Don't forget that Daylight Savings starts this Sunday.  These are the times when I miss being a full-time freelancer, because the time change didn't affect me all that much, since I usually didn't have to get up at a certain time, and certainly didn't have to punch a clock.  Unfortunately since these days I babysit on Sundays, I don't even get the day to adjust that most people do before they have to wake up early on the new time.

Because I have the experience of not having to get up early every morning, and certainly not being sleep deprived, I more or less agree with this article:

Seriously, Stop Worrying About Daylight Saving Time

How NOT to get enough sleep

It seems like sleep is in the news lately.  Just a few days after the recommendations for sleep duration were updated, I saw this article, about how using over-the-counter sleep aids such as Benadryl can actually increase your risk of getting dementia.

There had been a headline on this a couple of years ago, too, I think, but this one is a more comprehensive study.

How much sleep do we need?

Sleep has been on my mind a lot lately, as you likely know from my Sleep Cycle reviews, so the timing of this article seems more than a little coincidental:

National Sleep Foundation Updates Recommendations For How Much Sleep You Really Need

The changes themselves aren't terribly significant for adults, unless you have kids.  For the most part they just widened the recommended ranges to acknowledge that some kids need slightly less sleep than was previously recommended.  (I'd err toward the middle or end of the range, though -- a chronically over-tired kid is no fun for anyone.)  But there are some interesting changes that pertain to adults, too.

Second review of Sleep Cycle

I've been using Sleep Cycle for just over two weeks now, and I think it's about time to share again how it's working for me.

I blogged about Sleep Cycle two weeks ago, shortly after I started using it.  Now that I have two weeks of records, I think it's time to revisit my review.

When I blogged about Sleep Cycle early on, I had so far found it helpful, and was optimistic that I would continue to do so.

Waking up with Sleep Cycle

Two weeks into 2015 and I'm finally posting for the first time this year.  Oops!

I've been busy, despite my New Year's resolution to simplify, although to be fair that's a long-term goal that is going to require changes throughout the year.

One thing I'm currently trying to simplify, however, is the act of waking up in the morning.