Starting Over

In an effort to get back on track with my sleeping, I have managed to make a few changes to my habits.

Step 1: Two nights ago I moved my alarm clock across the room and turned the volume up on the radio so that when the alarm goes off at 6am, I am forced to get out of bed to turn it off. Once I'm up, I'm up - so that's good.

Step 2: No more reading in bed. I know I've gone through this before, but I got a little off track recently. First it was just 10 minutes of reading in bed, then 20 and before I knew it I was up to an hour of reading in bed again ... I restarted this two nights ago.

Step 3: Exercise. Over the last couple of weeks I've slacked off a bit and have noticed the difference in my sleep pattern. For the last 2 days I've forced myself to exercise when I get up. I am also planning to up the post-work exercise, but for this week and next week that'll take a back seat while I finish up a big project at work. I'm putting it in writing now - come May 8th I will add either a walk home from work and/or exercise when I get home.

Step 4: My last and final attempt to sleep with the oral appliance. I'm taking a break from it right now because I've had a lot of jaw pain and problems closing my jaw. Maybe I should set myself a goal to try again by May 8th.

I'll let you know how it goes.