The changes I have made...sleep

My entire life I have been a night person. From as young as I can remember I would stay up late reading or doing something and then have to drag myself out of bed in the morning, feeling unrested and grumpy. I normally can't fall asleep earlier even if I go to bed earlier. My brain just churns and it is still 2am before I am asleep.

The happiest I ever was schedule wise was the summer I worked nights, went to work at 7 pm, finished at 1am, left work, hung out with friends and til the sun came up and then went home to bed. That is my normal clock. Unfortunately that clock seems to have also been playing a role in my weight issues.

The only period in my life where I was up in the morning and felt fully awake and refreshed was when we were treating my PTC with a certain medication which alters neurochemicals in the brain. During that time, I was awake before the alarm clock and felt truly rested and ready to tackle the world when I got out of bed. Truth, it was kind of scary for me to be like that, but I was really productive so that was good.

That was a long time ago, over a decade, and was back living my "night life" happily. Then during the second month of working with Gui we hit a plateau on my weight loss and were dissecting all the possible causes. Sleep was a topic that came up and surprised me. For as much biology as I have studied, I had never put together the link between sleep and weight, although now it makes perfect sense...too little sleep throws your entire body off especially hormonally and chemically.

But changing that is easier said than done. My goal wass to try to be to bed no later than 11pm each night and up by 7. It didn't go well on its own, so I looked for assistance. I was not willing nor able to go back to the medication I had originally taken and really didn't want to take another prescription medicine. So this time around I am trying a supplement approach to my sleep cycle, something analagous to the medication I used to take. The supplement my doctor and I decided on takes a bit of time to build up a high enough level to work. It has been about 5 weeks and I am finally now seeing results.

This is the first week I have been wide awake every morning before my alarm clock (usually around 5:30 am) and have been truly functional as soon as I wake up. I am still not ready to go start working out at this hour, but that is something that may never change. *grin*

Now if I could just learn to like breakfast mornings might get a little better. It is nearly 9am, I have been up 3 1/2 hours and I am still not ready to face the fridge, but one step at a time.