FINAL DAY of The February Challenge: Sleep Optimisation & Performance (28/02/22)
Reflections, lessons & announcing my March challenge!
My report for Monday 28th February 2022 - the final day of my February Sleep Optimisation challenge!
This report structure will be a little bit different. I’ll start with my reflections & learnings from this challenge in the form of:
My lessons & reflections from carrying out this challenge,
My improvement points if I were to replicate the challenge,
My practical actions I’m taking into the future even after this challenge has finished.
I’ll then talk about my March challenge, and finish with my ‘experience’ of the day (as I do in all posts).
Reflections from My February Challenge:
When I set out on my Sleep Optimisation challenge at the start of the month, I set the following parameters:
In bed by 11pm.
Asleep by 11:30pm.
Wake up at 7:30am.
If you’ve been following my SubStack, you’ll know that I didn’t really achieve this. In fact, being in bed before 11:30pm was a win (happened on 7/28 days).
My average time of going to bed across the month was 23:53.
My average wake up time was 08:08.
My average time in bed was 8h15m.
My average time asleep was 7h6m (this is deep & REM sleep).
Nevertheless, here are 4 lessons I’ve learned:
Objectively, though I failed to achieve the goal, I consider this experiment to be a success, in that, on average, I’m going to bed over 1.5 hours earlier than before (from 1:30am to an average of 23:53pm) and waking up 1.5 hours earlier (from 9:45am to an 8:08am average). The fact that I hadn’t slept before midnight for years before this challenge makes me proud that my average for the month was before midnight - it’s all about steady & sustainable improvement.
My energy felt so much more consistent during the day - I believe that the regularity of my sleep cycle has contributed significantly to this. I’m also getting tired at the same time each night (10:30pm-ish). Regularity helps, as does viewing morning light before 9:30am each morning (triggers a cortisol spike which sets melatonin to be released 12-14 hours later), something I achieved for 26/28 days of this month!
The biggest factor in determining how late I would be to sleep was when I started my 60-80 minute pre-sleep routine. On the nights I started cleaning the kitchen, taking out bins (etc.) at 9:30pm, I was in bed before 11:30pm. If those tasks lingered until 10pm, then it would be midnight or 00:30am.
My time-management was so much better in February. Most importantly, I’ve felt more in control of my mornings. I don’t feel rushed when I start the day, and that sense of relaxation and ease has been vital for my mental wellbeing. Having more time in the mornings has allowed me to ease into the day before client sessions. I’ve also been able to pick off daunting tasks early in the day, boosting momentum. I’ve also shifted my running & gym times back by 1.5 hours (used to start them around 2:30/3pm, now 1/1:30pm), which has been far better for me in terms of not being rushed for evening clients.
2 things I would improve on if I were to do this challenge again in the future:
Get an actual Oura Ring or Whoop Band. Sleep Cycle is a great app for tracking, but things like picking up noise from my partner’s movement in bed (+ ambient noise from the bathroom fan, dishwasher, etc.) isn’t ideal and skews things. It also doesn’t tell me how much time I spent in Deep NREM Sleep and REM Sleep, which are both important.
Actually stick to the challenge. Perhaps some penalty for each night I don’t. I didn’t do that this time because part of this challenge is to be very transparent about what works & what doesn’t. To be honest, while effective in the short-term, I don’t think penalties are the most sustainable way of creating change. Having done this challenge on my terms, I do think I’m much more motivated to keep sleeping in the 11pm-12am range than if I’d enforced a penalty if I didn’t sleep by 11pm. Encountering the obstacles that came with this challenge helped me align deeper with why I actually wanted this, and what it may look like far beyond the end of this challenge.
4 Action Points from this challenge that I will take with me into the rest of 2022:
Stay honest with myself. I know now exactly what I need to do to get in bed by 11pm - start toning down at 9pm. If I’m not doing this, it’s a conscious choice.
Keep sleep time between 11pm and 12am, and do my best to bring it down further with time. Given I hadn’t slept before midnight for a few years, to have my average fall below that mark for a whole month is very affirming. The benefits (both in terms of energy & mental wellbeing due to being more in control of my time) have convinced me.
Keep tracking sleep. Even though Sleep Cycle isn’t perfect, even seeing the sleeping times and wake up times has been good in holding me more internally accountable. I track pretty much everything I do, so it won’t be much more of a stretch to add this to the list.
Include in-bed time and wake-up time in future SubStack blogs under the Health & Fitness life area section. May be good to observe! Plus you can see if it creeps back into the 1-2am range…
So, with this in mind, what’s the challenge for March?
March Challenge…READING BOOKS!
For the month of March, I was torn between doing a Meditation-related challenge (3 x 10 minutes a day) or doing a Reading-related challenge (15 books for the month).
I’ve decided on the reading challenge for the following reasons:
I don’t read as much as I’d like to. It’s where I learn the most, but lately, I’ve been settling for articles that are fed to me via my LinkedIn feeds. Not that these aren’t valuable, but they’re reactive learning, not proactive learning.
I miss reading for entertainment. This challenge will mix reading non-fiction for professional development, and reading fiction for personal enjoyment.
Tracking my screen time has shown me just how much time I spend on social media per day. I would like to transfer significant amounts of that to reading.
During sunnier months, I like the idea of meditating outside more than reading outside. I don’t read as much when it’s sunny, preferring to be in a state of movement, whether walks or exercise. March is still not sunny. I was also thinking of saving the Meditation challenge for August, to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of my 10-day stay at Suan Mokkh Monastery training.
My holiday planned between 3rd March and 10th March. Lots of reading time! Very tactical on my side. However, I do have a very busy rest of March with talks scheduled on 16th, 18th, 23rd, 27th and two more possibly on 29th and 1st April, so it will also be interesting to see how reading goes as work picks up!
So, what is the reading challenge?
Read 15 books over the course of March - that’s just under 1 every 2 days!
Of these, I’d like 7 of them to be fiction, 8 of them to be non-fiction. However, I’ll be flexible as needed - would prefer more non-fiction to fiction!
I’ll be reading the books on a mixture of iBooks on my phone (screen time will go up, sad), my Kindle, and actual paperback books.
I will be tracking time I spend reading per day, as well as number of pages.
For non-fiction books, my aim is to also summarise key information from the book (especially as what I learn can be taught to my clients!).
I would love to hear your ideas for books to read!
On the non-fiction side, I’m going to select among the following:
Range by David Epstein - a bit cheeky as I started it yesterday.
Destressifying by Davidji (have had it for a while and been meaning to get around to it)
Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza (same as above)
Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows
How To Do The Work by Nicole LePera
Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger
Coaching for Emotional Intelligence by Bob Wall (already started)
Start With Why by Simon Sinek (already started)
Busy by Tony Crabbe
Essentialism by Greg McKeown
The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt
Hooked by Nir Eyal
The Whole-Brain Child by Dr Daniel Siegel & Dr Tina Payne Bryson (for future parenting projects)
Untangled by Lisa D’Amour (for future parenting projects)
I’m also considering other books specifically related to performance psychology or speaking businesses, or even sales - very career-related.
At the moment, on the fiction side, I’m going for:
The One Impossible Labyrinth by Matthew Reilly - finishing off a 7-part series I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I may read through the 6th book (the one before this) to jog my memory.
The 6 Soul Eater Books by Pippa DaCosta - my dad recommended them, and he’s generally got good taste in sci-fi/ fantasy!
Ursula Le Guin books if I get through the others.
Open to recommendations from you all! I just thought I’d set down this list to minimise future decision fatigue!
So, that’s the March challenge. Let’s see how it goes!
My Experience:
Reflections on My Sleep Optimisation Challenge:
Night of Sunday 27th Feb:
In-bed by 00:13. Alas, couldn’t get it before midnight!
Finished routines by 00:12
Asleep by 00:40. 27 mins to get to sleep, according to Sleep Cycle app.
Morning of Monday 28th Feb:
Alarm went off at 8:27am. Set the Sleep Cycle app to wake me between 8:20 and 8:40am.
Got out of bed at 8:35am.
Sleep stats:
In bed for 8h14m
Asleep for 7h24m.
Sleep quality: 95% according to Sleep Cycle.
Regularity: 95%. Very regular sleeping…but not a time that I want to be regular!
Some quick observations on the sleep front:
Technically the last night of the challenge was the night of Monday 28th (last night), and I can report I made it into bed at…00:05.
Would have been nice to finish strong with a sub-11pm finish, but hey, it is what it is. I really did try for before midnight, and I got close…
But as I mentioned in the reflections, there are many wins from this challenge, and I’m excited to take them forwards with me.
Impact on 6 Life Areas (Monday 28th Feb 2022):
The 6 areas are 1. Career, 2. Mood, 3. Health & Fitness, 4. Family & Relationships, 5. Recreation & Screen Time, and 6. General Fulfilment.
Career:
Clients, talks & calls - 3 client sessions today - 1 in the morning, 2 in the evening.
Content creation - Writing practice done (SubStack post).
Business development - None today.
Business admin - Not much. Mainly life admin - cancelling auto-renewal of car insurance, going to the pharmacy, etc.
Mood/Emotions/Energy/Mental Health:
Morning - 9.5/10. Peaceful start to the day - walk in the park & did my routines. Good client session [focused, peaceful, present], and then life admin sorting out car insurance [relax as much as possible, don’t take it too seriously]. Ate lunch and wrote my SubStack [focused, intrigued, inspired] after reading Range.
Afternoon - 9.5/10. Tennis hit with my cousin for an hour [fun, joyful, light], then returned and had my two client sessions [excited, present, peaceful, curious].
Evening - 9.5/10. Enjoyed dinner and a movie, then some quality time chatting with my partner and toning down for bed [peaceful, fulfilled].
Physical Health and Fitness:
Quick gym session:
Dumbbell Incline Press: 24kg x 12, 12, 12
Great that strength is back after injury, felt comfortable.
Shoulder Rehab before tennis (rotator cuff focus).
Tennis with my cousin for 1 hour - great fun & a decent workout (he gets to every shot possible). Also good volley practice for me.
Stretches in the morning and 10,875 steps total.
Resting heart rate: 38bpm (all good)
Relationships: Family, Friends, Partner:
Grateful to my wonderful partner for being so supportive on a busy day for both of us - so excited for our upcoming trip together.
Grateful to my family for their FaceTime call - always a highlight!
Recreation/Screen Time:
Watched Nobody movie - very John Wick vibes, including the Russian baddies. Somewhat fitting of the time…
Social Media/Apps Non-Productive Phone Screen-time:
LinkedIn: 26m - mainly replies and Ukraine updates.
Facebook: 1h14m - articles & recreation (chess videos while I’m on the toilet, lol).
IG: 1m - no desire to post for work these days, which is something I should probably figure out.
WhatsApp: 44m (messages)
Total: 4h44m - Back under 5 hours, wooh. 46m of this was on iBooks…getting a head start on my March challenge!
73 Pickups - 16 x WhatsApp used as first app on picking up.
Fulfilment:
Gave today a 9.5/10 overall. A good Monday overall. Honoured client sessions, did my sports and spent time with my partner. Lots of life admin and a few work tasks still need to get done before we head off to Gran Canaria, but have a good plan in place for the next few days! Let’s see how it goes!
We’ve made it to the end of our February Challenge! Thank you so much for reading - I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Hope that you have an amazing day! Now to eat dinner & have my final client session of the day…
Until tomorrow,
Kam