I have struggled with the term “sleep hygiene” because it does seem like one of those w**ky wellness terms. The kind of phrase that makes you imagine someone telling you that you need to “optimise your sleep environment” while selling you an expensive pillow.
But I have made my peace with it. To a point.
It was actually a term first used in 1918, although it has become much more common since the 2010s and is now part of mainstream culture. It came up regularly during my three weeks on the Pain Management hospital programme back in June.
And, reluctantly, I have to admit that some of it makes sense.
My sleep hygiene has improved dramatically this year. In terms of the discipline of getting to bed and getting up, I am probably in the best place I have been since around 2018. I am back to my pre-Long Covid pattern of getting up early, and I am spending far more time actually in bed. I am aware that the little sleep I have functioned on for most of my adult life is not good for one’s health.
Mentally, I feel better for making this effort.
The problem is that the sleeping within that eight-hour window remains terrible.
I am doing many of the things I am supposed to do, but I am still waking up exhausted. The first two hours of the day are a real struggle. The increased exercise, including my twice-weekly rehab sessions, is helping me get through the day, but I can still feel sluggish as I get into it.
They say part of sleep hygiene is making sure the bedroom is suitable for sleep.
That bedroom is not suitable for anything.
Maybe that is part of the problem.
Right now, radio and podcasts are not putting me to sleep in the way they often do. I did not help matters last night by watching two episodes of the Knockout Audit YouTube channel, which appears to revolve around visiting feral towns beginning with a “B” on Friday or Saturday nights and watching drunk people fighting.
And yet I had actually had a decent day.
The rehab session was excellent and the day peaked at the gym. By the evening, though, a new material gig had become more difficult than it should have been. I had spent two days trying to nail one new bit out of four and still had not managed it. The three new bits I had learned, worked. The bit I hadn’t, got a mixed response. I believe it works. I just hadn’t learnt it properly and there was a reason for that.
In the middle of the afternoon, an email arrived from my MP concerning one of the two legal battles currently taking up so much of my time and putting me under so much pressure.
I am not someone who can easily park these things until another day, so learning the new material went to one side while I dealt with the correspondence.
I was grateful for the post-gym high because, without it, I think I would have been far more stressed.