No More Procrastinating

A week or two ago I said I would give my oral appliance one more attempt. I said I'd start using it again on May 8. Well, by May 11 I still hadn't started with it again so I said "Enough!!!" (yes, with 3 exclamation points). Wrote myself a post-it note and managed to force myself into wearing it Friday and Saturday night. Can't say I slept well with it, but at least it didn't hurt my jaw. Took Sunday night off. I plan on doing another 2 nights with it tonight and tomorrow.

I'd been asking myself why I wasn't using it every morning last week, as I saw that blue box in my bathroom cabinet. My excuses ran the gamut from "oh, I forgot (again)", to "well, I'm still working on that big project at work" (why that should have anything to do with using an oral appliance is beyond me, but this is really what I've told myself), to "it's going to hurt my jaw again", to "after ..." whatever excuse I can think up.

Here's what I know though - whatever the excuse, they are all just excuses. Either I want to give it another try or not. Either I want to improve my sleep or not. What do I really want out of this and how much do I want it? Obviously this is applicable to anybody, not just myself, in just about any area of life. Losing weight, finishing school, training for a triathlon ...

I have made a lot of changes to my lifestyle in an effort to sleep better. Some of these changes have worked better than others. And that's fine - I have to find out what works for and realise (and accept, hoooooo that's a big one!) that not everything will work. But more than anything right now, the one thing I have to do is try once more to sleep with this oral appliance. Starting with one night on and one off. Then 2 nights on, one night off. Working my way up to 5 nights. I think it may also be helpful to not think too much about my past experience with the appliance. Yes, I know it will be uncomfortable. Yes, it has even been painful. But I have to find a way to get around this type of negative thinking because I think in some ways, it may affect the results I'm having with it.

Enough procrastinating. I know that this is what I've been doing. I managed two nights without any problems, I can handle another two.