Late to bed and early to rise
("Why so surly, Ben?" "Well, you know, surly to bed and surly to rise. . . ." Can't remember who wrote that. Maybe it's in Almanac of Words at Play?)
Warning: this entry is entirely about Jed's sleeping habits, which he thinks worthy of discussion largely because he's not quite awake yet.
Some years back, having difficulty sleeping due to noise, I started wearing earplugs to bed. I went through various kinds, and eventually settled on the wax-and-cotton ones that you can mold to fit well in your ear, but that don't dry out your ear (and scrape the skin) the way the foam ones do. I've been sleeping fairly comfortably with them for years now, though it does mean my ears sometimes itch a lot during the day.
But back in late December I decided that it was time to take the bull by the tail and look the matter squarely in the face. (Another one from the Almanac.) I would like to be a heavier sleeper, but the trend has been in the other direction: lately I've needed more and more sensory deprivation to be able to sleep.
So I decided to try sleeping without earplugs for a while, while I was on vacation from work; figured I'd lose sleep for a few nights but by the time I went back to work I'd probably be able to sleep again, and if not, I'd go back to earplugs.
Much to my surprise, I slept fine. It's now been two and a half months since I've used earplugs, and it hasn't been a problem. (In fact, one night when a friend was sleeping in the living room I wore earplugs again, and discovered that now wearing them makes my ears itch so much I can't sleep.)
So now I'm taking the next step: removing the blanket that's been covering the inside of my bedroom blinds for, oh, probably the last couple years, in an attempt to reduce the amount of light in my room in the morning.
This transition isn't necessarily going so well. I should've done it a couple months ago when it was darker in the morning; I suspect that the additional light is part of why I woke up at 7:30 yesterday (an hour or so earlier than normal) and 7 this morning. (But Daylight Savings starts in a month or so; that'll help.)
Which probably means that I can't continue my habit of regularly staying up past 1 a.m.
On the other hand, it'll probably be good for me to wake up earlier, and get tired earlier, and go to bed earlier. And it'll definitely be good for me to be able to sleep even if there's light in the room.
My eventual goal: learn to sleep at a loud party with strobe lights.