Day 4: Success! 6:30 am wakeup
Day 5: Fail. 8:00 am wakeup
Depression disrupts sleep, allowing for less deep sleep and more early morning (4-5 am) awakening. This week I faced those obstacles. I've been feeling a little down all week, and my sleep has been predictably less sound.
On Thursday, because I was experiencing some of the intrusive thoughts I struggle with from time to time, and was having trouble working, I took my anxiety medication. This allowed me to get work done on Thursday, but it made me sleep longer than usual that night. Excessive somnolence + staying up late to watch TV Thur. night = Friday morning fail.
While maintaining a more regular sleep schedule didn't appear to improve my mood in the short term, I do think it may have helped keep my head above water during an otherwise difficult week. Maybe my sleep would have been even more disordered if I hadn't stuck to a schedule. As it was, my early morning awakening was annoying, but not too terrible. I was always able to fall back asleep. And going to bed at a set time and waking up earlier does seem to give my day more structure.
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