A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

Thursday, October 26, 2017

My sleeping log.


Last week, I listened to a Fresh Air podcast about sleep and decided to try to fall asleep without my normal 25mg of diphenhydramine I usually take.

I have been taking the 25mg every night for several years. The only nights I don't take it is when I forget. The funny thing is, if I forget, I have no problem sleeping. But last Tuesday night, when I purposefully didn't take my pill, I had anxiety about falling asleep!

The anxiety obviously did not help me fall asleep... I didn't doze off until after 10:00. Then I woke up at 2:44 and just LAID THERE UNTIL 5:00. At that point, I was like, eff this shit, I'm getting up.

What did I think about as I laid there for two and a half hours? WORK. FREAKING WORK.

After Tuesday night's first go at sleeping without my diphenhydramine, I decided I should log my sleep for the next week and see how it goes. Here's what happened this week without my pill...


**Note: My alarm is always set for 5:30 on week days.
On weekends, it varies.**



Tuesday- Fell asleep sometime after 10:00. Woke up at 2:44 when the cats wanted fed. Laid there until 5:00, which is when I finally got up. (4.5 hours)

Wednesday- I was so tired from my lack of sleep on Tueday night, so I ended up falling asleep sometime around 8:45 and woke up when Paul came to bed at 11:48. I felt completely refreshed and ended up laying there awake until almost 1:00. Then I fell back asleep and woke up at 2:49 when Jelly woke me up to get fed. I fell back asleep right away and woke up at 5:25. I was very tired. I looked at my phone and was sad to see I only had 5 more minutes of sleep! I did fall asleep for that 5 minutes. (7.5 hours)

Thursday- Fell asleep a little after 10:00. I woke up at 12:05 when Paul went to bed. I fell right back asleep. Then I woke up at 3:19 when the cats wanted fed... and never fell back asleep. I finally got out of bed at 4:26. It's official: The cats are my downfall. If they didn't wake me up, I bet I would sleep through the night. (6 hours)

Friday- 11:00-6:00. 7 solid hours with one trip to the bathroom! I was in a hotel in Baltimore (running the relay the next day!) so I'm impressed I was able to sleep so well. It was quiet, the bed was comfy, and there were no cats! (7 hours)

Saturday- It felt so good to be in my own bed! Even though the hotel bet was comfy, there is no place like home. I was very tired and stayed up later than normal watching a Maura Murray show on TV. I went to bed around 11:30. My alarm went off at 8:00 (even though I didn't know it was going to!) and I got up for real. I woke up many times throughout the night but fell right back asleep. (8 hours and 15 min)

Here's what happened:

12:15- Paul went to bed.
Unknown- Jelly woke me up to be fed.
5:15- Jelly knocks bedside lamp onto the floor.
7:30- Christmas cuddles up next to me and purrs as loud as he can.

Sunday- I fell asleep sometime around 9:30. I woke up several times. The first time was at 11:05, and it was Jelly bothering me for food. Then at midnight, I woke up when Paul came to bed. Jelly woke up wanting food again at 2:11. I kicked him out of the room. At 4:00, he was slamming against the door to wake me up, so I finally fed him. I woke up for the last time at 5:28. So that's about 8 hours minus the few minutes I was awake all those times. (7 hours and 45 minutes.)

Monday- Another shitty night. Asleep by 9:30, up at 2:20 to feed the kitties, never fell back asleep. Kill me. (4 hours and 50 minutes.)

Jelly woke me up at two and then he went back to bed... so why does he look so tired???


So I have come to the conclusion I don't have any problems falling asleep. It's just the cats either wake me several times a night and I fall back asleep, or they wake me up and I don't fall back asleep. 

I definitely don't feel like I need my sleeping pills, but I think my cats do.

Have you ever tracked your sleep?
I am thinking of getting a Garmin that tracks it...

14 comments:

  1. I can relate to this post SO MUCH. Cecil wakes me up in the middle of the night and I often have trouble falling back asleep after. While I was in Atlanta Adam was on cat dad duty and he said it was awful getting up in the middle of the night to feed Cecil. I was like, that's been my life for the last 10 years!

    We are now trying a new thing this week where Adam feeds Cecil at midnight before he comes to bed. It has helped a lot (except for last night bc Adam forgot to feed Cecil so he woke me up).

    We feel badly about this new schedule a bit because on the days that both Adam and I go to the office, Cecil gets fed at midnight and then not again until 4-7pm (depending on when Adam goes home). At the same time having a full night's sleep is just so nice. IDK what to do.

    I don't track my sleep but Adam does using his fitbit watch!

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    1. Is Adam able to sleep through Cecil waking you up? My guess is he walks on you? The cats used to not wake us up because They get fed at nine and also right before Paul goes to bed... which could be anywhere between 11-1am. So if they eat so soon after we go to bed, why are they hungry at two!?

      My new Garmin is going to track sleep. I will prob use it and see what I think of it. Not sure I will do it long term. We'll see!

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    2. Ya he paws at my face until I wake up! He does it specially to me because he knows I’m the one who will get up and feed him. I’m his mom after all :D.

      From what I’ve read cat’s instinctively love to eat at night because that’s historically when they would eat in the wild. The idea of “breakfast and dinner” is something we have pushed on them, but in the wild cats really only eat once per day and they tend to hunt at night.

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    3. Well then if they like eating at night we are screwed!!!

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  2. My fitbit tracks sleep but i've never used it for that because I figure Yea, I have the data but what will I do with it. I know I wont do anything different. But then again I don't have a problem sleeping.
    I can certainly relate to being woken by animals. Our Weimaraner would wake us up every single night. It got to the point where scott and I (or at least I) seriously thought about taking turns staying at the hotel across the street just so we could take turns getting a full nights sleep! We eventually (with the ok of the vet of course) started giving our dog melatonin. Perhaps you can sneak some of that to your cats...hehe!
    Can animals not eat alone without their humans watching? Baylee wakes me up every now and then because she wants food too. Her dish always has something in it (because she doesn't always finish her dinner), so I am wondering if she just doesn't want to go downstairs by herself, or she just wants me watching her? Do the cats always have a filled dish before they go to bed?

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    1. That's nice that you don't have trouble sleeping. What time do you go to bed/get up? My cats do not just have free range of food because they would gorge themselves. Ever since they went on a diet a couple years ago, we have fed them a certain number of calories at certain times during the day... including right before we go to bed so why are they so hungry!??

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    2. The only reason Baylee has free range of her food is because she doesn't eat a lot and we are trying to get her to gain weight. If she wants more, we give her more! We always keep her dish full but for some reason she does not eat when we are not home. Perhaps you could give your cats half their serving at the regular time and the other half before Paul goes to bed? I'm not sure what the answer is for that one!
      I go to bed around 10:00 ish and wake up around 6:30. I am glad you were able to get a good night's sleep at the hotel because I know I just tossed and turned. I thought those beds were SO hard...lol

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    3. Really? Maybe your beds were different from ours.

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  3. I usually don't have any trouble falling (or staying) asleep, so I feel for anyone who does....

    I've been tracking my sleep with my Garmin (*hint, hint*)... I am a numbers person, so I just love to look at all the stats!

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    1. Haha nice! My Garmin comes tomorrow and it has a sleep tracker. :)

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  4. Wow--your cats! That kind of sucks they wake you to be fed. I think keeping a sleep diary is SO interesting. I might try to do it, too. I don't wake up with Rick coming to bed or Macy needing anything (she's woken me up 2 x in 11 years and it was because she was sick). I do have issue with getting up to pee. It's a bummer but I can't not drink. I try to limit at night and I don't drink caffeine but it doesn't really help. Sigh...

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    1. I do get up to pee too. If I get up at night to feed the cats, I have to pee, and then I am sort of awake. So nice that Macy doesn't wake you up!

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  5. When I have trouble, it's falling asleep. There are nights where my brain won't shut up, and keeps going off on tangents. The beginning of this week was like that, and because the heat's on more, I woke up Monday and Wednesday with a dry cough, and couldn't go back to sleep. Boy was I cranky on Monday.

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    1. Aw dang that sucks. :( Did you ever try melatonin? It doesn't help you fall asleep but it helps your body release the hormones that tell you it's time to sleep.

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