Update:
Friday night, 2/9:
Woke up a couple times but back to sleep quickly.
Saturday night, 2/10:
Added 30 minutes to the front end; bedtime at 11:30pm. I woke up once early in the night but went back to sleep quickly. Then I woke up at 5:15am, stayed awake a bit longer, and was half asleep when my alarm went off at 6. Probably worst night since Monday but still better than my prior baseline.
Sunday, 2/11:
Felt off today, didn't get anything done. Just feeling apathetic. Sunday neurosis? Idk.
Sunday night:
Pretty much a carbon copy of Saturday night.
Monday, 2/12:
Felt pretty good all day. I tried to head off the afternoon sleepiness by getting out of the house to get some things done, and it worked. I'm usually home in the afternoons and I think being in a place I can easily nap contributes to the urge to nap. I got a lot done so I might try to repeat this way of doing things.
Monday night:
Sleep was good, but woke up at 5am in a really bad way. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I shot up and coughed a few times to clear what felt like something in the back of my throat. Scared the shit out of me. This has happened to me twice before, many years ago, and both times I was dreaming about some situation where I couldn't breathe. Didn't remember any dream this time. Needless to say I didn't go back to sleep; my heart was beating out of my chest. Hoping this was just a one-off thing.
I took your advice and downloaded an app called Snore Lab to record my sleep. The free version only lets you play back clips, but I might pony up the $5 to record the whole night.
I definitely snore a lot, but I didn't hear anything that sounded like apnea. The app even shows you waveforms of the sounds you're making and they look pretty regular. Does anyone have experience with other apps or methods of assessing your sleep?
This last week was pretty unremarkable except for waking up a lot Thursday night (had an exam Friday; maybe due to anxiety). I've been out and about the last couple of nights, so I've gone to sleep a bit later and woke up a bit later, still staying at about 6 hours and 30 minutes total "sheet time." I'm gonna shoot for 7 hours starting tonight (Sunday).
Try a sound recorder on your phone, there are tons of free ones available. A regular SD card can allow you to record hours and hours. Apnea is clear even just hearing it.
The problem is listening to 7h straight of yourself snoring, but I think you can manage.
Yeah, I'd really like to avoid that. I'm trying to find an app that will let me see the waveforms of my breathing so I can just skip to the irregular portions. Looks like there are several apps that show you waveforms while you're recording, but not while playing back.
Still haven't had any luck finding an app that will let me view waveforms during playback, but I might have some time to look this weekend.
The last two nights I've slept through for almost 7 hours. This morning I woke up a bit early (530) but yesterday morning I slept all the way through until literally seconds before my alarm went off. The only thing I changed is taking my last protein shake right before bed (protein shake, brush teeth, bed). And last night I had a pb&j with the shake. Usually I take it like 1-1.5 hours before bed. I'll repeat tonight, and it looks like I'll add another 30 minutes starting this weekend.
There's actually a section in Practical Programming that covers recovering and the importance of sleep. If I'm remembering correctly some hormones (i.e. testosterone) required for recovery peak within at most a few hours of falling asleep and hold at that level throughout the night unless waking up occurs and levels tend to drop below peak. Now logically it makes sense to me that if levels aren't peaked all night you're missing out on peak recovery. Man that's a lot of peak.
If you're tired at 9pm, why not just go to sleep then? Me experience (with babies and toddlers anyways!) is that more sleep often causes better sleep
That's an excellent idea, thanks! I'll give it a shot.
Well that was the way I used to do things--going to bed around 930 or 10 when I got tired. And I'd fall asleep just fine, but I'd wake up several times throughout the night, usually with a long stretch of time awake starting around 3am. And now I don't get tired at 9pm; I've been able to stay relatively productive up until 10 or 1030.