The Solution to My Sleep Issues Was Surprisingly Simple

I think we sometimes overthink sleep

Photo by Shane on Unsplash

In the past couple of years, I’ve doubled down on trying to get eight to nine hours of sleep a night. It doesn’t matter how I get it — if I sleep six hours at night, then wake up suddenly early in the morning, I’ll try to take a nap later in the day for two hours.

It’s a much healthier mindset than when I was in college when I slept five or six hours a night. Now, with a lot more going on in terms of my relationship, job, law school, and more, I need at least eight hours a night to be a functioning adult, and sleeping a lot more has made me more effective and mentally and physically healthier.

But there are some days (honestly, more than some) where trying to sleep through the night isn’t so simple. I’ll have trouble going to sleep and just lay restless for hours, or I’ll wake up suddenly at around 3 or 4 a.m. and not be able to go back to sleep. Obviously, this isn’t ideal for the goal of getting eight to nine hours of sleep.

For a long time, people told me the solution was to stop taking naps during the day and stop the biphasic sleep schedule I’d grown so accustomed to on some days. I tried that. I tried just powering through the day and not taking long naps whenever I felt like it, but I still had trouble…