Hey everyone,
I've got a pretty good dilemma for your consideration:
Before I got serious about exercising I'd wake up in the middle of the night for at least 2 hours straight, which I'd spend anxiously surfing the web. Best I can tell (before fitbit) I probably got about 4-5 hours of sleep half the time, 6 hours on a good night.
Getting up early to exercise has enabled me to stay in bed and remain screen-free overnight; I get back to sleep easier when I wake up in the middle of the night. After I committed to this routine I got my Fitbit and now I know I more routinely get 6 hours of sleep with about an hour of wake time scattered over the course of the night (which Fitbit says is normal for men my age). Clearly an improvement.
So I'm looking to improve to an average of about 6.5 hours of sleep per night, and then increase from there. But in order to exercise I have to get up at 5AM. Now that my wife has early work hours, she needs to get up at 4:50 AM, so I get up with her (we exercise together).
On a normal night, I help my daughter to bed and she's asleep by about 9:30. If housework is done at that time I can get to bed and be asleep by, say 9:45.
Obviously, I'd love to have less awake time in the middle of the night, as that would get me some bonus sleep given my time constraints, but I don't have much control over that.
Working out after work is not really an option because I get out of the office at 5:30 and home by 6:20, meaning it's time to cook dinner. By the time we've eaten, cleaned up from dinner and given our food time to digest, it's close to bedtime.
On paper, you'd think I'd get more sleep if I gave up exercising in the morning and pushed the alarm clock back to 6AM to get ready for work, but the exercise is what's preventing full-blown insomnia. Do you think I accept my current routine as "as good as it gets?"
For those of you whose sleep time is constrained at bedtime and wake time, what has helped you make the most of what you have?
