I’m not far into my weight loss journey – at least not this attempt at it. But I’ve been doing things differently. I’ve been swimming, I signed up for MFP, and I’ve been either posting on or looking around this sub. It’s been a week, and I lost a pound. Considering normal fluctuations, water, etc. that’s not a huge deal, but I am, in fact, aiming to lose a pound a week, so I’ve actually done exactly what I set out to do. It’s not a sexy win, but it’s a win.
There’s a lot of variables to consider. Exercise and eating, but also my severe depression, my recent breakup, stress with family, and my current unemployment (waiting on a license to practice in this state.) But one of the toughest ones for me is sleep.
From childhood, I’ve been a terrible sleeper. It always took me forever to get to sleep, and forever to wake up in the morning. I like staying up; I feel most alert and creative late at night. When I lie down, even if I’m tired, I toss and turn, sometimes for hours. Then I sleep in and can’t drag my ass out of bed to save my life. So, the cycle gets worse. I’ve tried most sleep aids before, everything from melatonin up to prescription stuff. Generally, it doesn’t have a strong effect until the next day, when I feel foggy and exhausted. It might make me a little bit sleepy, but even feeling exhausted doesn’t get me to sleep on time, so it’s no help at all.
With such a terrible schedule, it’s extremely difficult to eat well and avoid snacking late at night. Because I fall asleep so late (sometimes around dawn) and wake up so late, I miss prime hours at the pool. It makes me feel depressed, which exacerbates everything else. It feels like maintaining a better schedule is not only necessary for me to get my life going normally, it’s also necessary for my weight loss to go smoothly.
I have no idea what to do. I’ve tried hard resetting my schedule by staying up all night, sleep pills, exercising hard to exhaust myself, and talking about it with my therapist. I don’t know how to break down this 30 year tendency.
This might not be directly related to weight loss, but I think that for me it’s an extremely important topic. In my observations, healthy sleep is as important to a healthy life as food, exercise, water, work, friends, family, etc. All the big ones. Since I’ve given the old college try to a lot of methods already, I’m looking for something that I might have missed. Do you know of anything weird or unexpected, or even something easily overlooked that I haven’t mentioned? What guidance can you give on attacking such an ingrained habit?
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