Good Night

I am fascinated by challenges. While there were moments of frustration during my picture-a-day-for-a-month challenge, I was delighted with the changes it inspired in me as a photog. Undertaking the challenge of living by a cash flow plan with Christa has been the most eye-opening and liberating experience of my adult life. Our current diet and exercise challenge is re-sculpting my body into a shape not seen in years.

Inspired by all of that, I’m embarking on another challenge: going to bed at 9:30pm for a month.

I’ve always enjoyed a good night’s sleep, but it usually comes at the expense of a late morning. Sleeping in late usually means rushing around and even skipping some morning activities that I don’t want to forego (see exercise challenge above). So, remembering a similar challenge a friend wrote about, I am going to bed early.

Since it is my challenge, I get to set the rules. Going to bed does not mean being asleep. The challenge is to be in bed at 9:30, but it is ok to read or participate in some other activity. In the 7 nights since undertaking this challenge, falling asleep has only been an issue once and that was for only 20 minutes (getting up at 5:30, makes it pretty easy for me to fall asleep before 10pm). On Friday and Saturday I stay up until 10pm. And that’s it.

I’ve already begun to realize things that I wish I could stay ignorant of. Each day only has 24 hours. If you subtract 8 for sleep you are left with 16. I work 8 hours with a 1 hour lunch, and that leaves 7. I average a 50 minute commute which whittles it down to 5 hours 20 minutes. If I spend 60 minutes exercising and it takes 10 minutes each way to get to the gym, I’m down to 4 hours. A precious 4 hours each day for everything else I want to do with my time. Ouch. By the time this month is over there may be some changes.