The holidays are upon us and with them stress. We already have enough of it on regular basis … Life as a blind person is not exactly simple. This can have an effect on the quality of your sleep. No sleep? No problem. We are going to show you how to train your body back to normal uninterrupted sleep in just a few weeks.
This method was introduced to us by a sleep specialist from Kaiser Permanente and it worked like a charm. Keep in mind, however, that you might return to that method multiple times if your sleeping habits change over time.
You need to determine how many hours you sleep every night. No need to use a calculator in the middle of the night. Just try to keep track of the time when you wake up in the middle of the night. You can use a log book to remember if you want. Do this for a week. You need an average. For me, my average was 4 hours…usually 20 minutes sleep at a time followed by 20 minutes wide awake…
Your goal is now to try to sleep in just one block instead of multiple sleep sessions during the night . 4 hours uninterrupted then…
Figure out when you need to get up in the morning. 6 AM for me.
Plan to hit the bed so that you would meet your average sleeep time and wake up at the desired time. For me, that means bed time is at 2 AM.
Every night for a week, make yourself busy until 2 AM. It‘s harder for us blind people. No TV or movies… Try an audiobook or maybe even learn a new skill during that time. I learned Yoga and read plenty of books …
If you are not falling asleep immediately when you lay down in bed, then get up and get busy. Your brain needs to learn that bed is for sleep…not frustrations. Only hit the bed when you feel tired.
After a week, you should see some improvement. You might feel more tired than before but the idea is for you to sleep in just one straight period. No awaking in the middle.
Add 30 minutes or an hour to your sleep time and try to hit the bed at that time. For me it would mean hitting the bed at 1 AM. Use the same technique as previously described.
After a week, add another 30 minutes to an hour and keep going every week or so until you reach your sleep goal. 7 to 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night ,
It took me 2 months and it worked well enough. Of course, this isn’t a magic bullet and you might need to come back to that method later on if your sleeping habits deteriorate but the method is good enough; got me to keep sane and relatively fresh all day.
Tell us if it works for you or share your own method to improve sleep quality in the comments below.
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