Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is about how to sleep in on a weekday. Yes,
Speaker 1: you heard that right. It might be possible. You just
Speaker 1: need to tweak your mindset of what this looks like. So.
Speaker 1: I know some of my listeners are woken up by
Speaker 1: young kids every morning, weekdays and weekends alike. But as
Speaker 1: your kids get older and more independent, or if you
Speaker 1: don't have kids, you might relish those weekend mornings when
Speaker 1: you don't wake up to an alarm. You slowly move
Speaker 1: in and out of sleep, enjoying a pleasant grogginess and
Speaker 1: a gentle approach to getting up. That tends to not
Speaker 1: be the case on weekdays. Most of us wake suddenly
Speaker 1: to an alarm. But with a little bit of strategizing,
Speaker 1: you can in fact recreate that slow start most mornings
Speaker 1: if you want. The key is to make sure that
Speaker 1: you do not have a sleep debt on weekdays. So
Speaker 1: first figure out how much sleep you need. After tracking
Speaker 1: my time for more than ten years, I know my
Speaker 1: sleep set point is somewhere between seven point three and
Speaker 1: seven point four hours per day. I am guessing that
Speaker 1: you have a sleep set point two, it's probably the
Speaker 1: average of what you sleep over about a month when
Speaker 1: you include weekends and holidays. Then remind yourself what time
Speaker 1: you need to wake up on weekday mornings. I set
Speaker 1: my alarm for either six twenty or six forty, depending
Speaker 1: on the day and if kids are taking the bus
Speaker 1: are getting driven to school. Then be diligent about getting
Speaker 1: into bed at a time that allows you to get
Speaker 1: the amount of sleep you need. Someone who needs seven
Speaker 1: and a half hours of sleep and who needs to
Speaker 1: wake up at six thirty am needs to be in
Speaker 1: bed before eleven pm. Someone who needs eight hours of
Speaker 1: sleep would need to be in bed by ten thirty pm.
Speaker 1: Set some sort of reminder for about thirty minutes before
Speaker 1: this time so you can start winding down getting all
Speaker 1: ready for bed and being in bed and then reading
Speaker 1: or chatting with your partner or whatever it is you do.
Speaker 1: If you do this night after night, and you are
Speaker 1: active enough during the day that you tend to be
Speaker 1: tired at your bedtime, then you will start to notice
Speaker 1: something interesting. If you deliberately go to bed a tiny
Speaker 1: bit before your official bedtime, then you will start to
Speaker 1: wake up before your official waking time in the morning.
Speaker 1: You will be able to slowly drift up before your
Speaker 1: alarm goes off. You will be able to lie there
Speaker 1: feeling your nice pillow and blankets and enjoying the quiet,
Speaker 1: or seeing the light of the sunrise, or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: You might be able to go in and out of dreamland.
Speaker 1: That can be particularly nice too. I have certainly been
Speaker 1: trying this these days. If I have my lights out
Speaker 1: by ten forty five pm on a day when I
Speaker 1: can wake up at six forty am the next morning,
Speaker 1: then I will most likely be drifting up before my alarm.
Speaker 1: The math works, I'm probably asleep by ten fifty five pm,
Speaker 1: and then seven point four hours later gets us to
Speaker 1: about six twenty am. If the alarm goes off at
Speaker 1: six forty am, I am getting my groggy slowly waking
Speaker 1: up feels like I'm sleeping in time before my alarm. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, going to bed on time is easier said
Speaker 1: than done. People often get caught up on doing just
Speaker 1: one more thing, but you cannot really make more time.
Speaker 1: You can get your time at night, or you can
Speaker 1: get it in the morning. I kind of like the
Speaker 1: groggy morning pleasant time more than fifteen extra minutes spent
Speaker 1: looking at Instagram. But we can all make our own choices.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons to set a reminder about thirty
Speaker 1: minutes before bedtime is that it nudges you to make
Speaker 1: a decision. Are you doing something worthwhile? Then absolutely stay up.
Speaker 1: But if you're just reading people's ridiculous conspiracy theories on
Speaker 1: social media, to yourself a favor and put it into
Speaker 1: that when you feel like you are sleeping in on
Speaker 1: a weekday morning, your future self will be thanking you.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.