Family and sleep

I mentioned yesterday that my wife now acknowledges that her sleep patterns need to change. It seems that my making an effort to get to bed before midnight is having an effect on her, as she was also in bed before midnight last night. We both had trouble falling asleep, and lay in bed talking until after midnight.

On the first night that I got to bed before midnight, I was still awake at 2am. I'm hoping that by getting to bed at a reasonable time and getting up around 8 hours later, I'll re-train my body to sleep during that time, but I don't want to be too sleep deprived, so I'm not too worried if I stay in bed for a few minutes extra while I get into the pattern.

We were going to be going to Canberra for a few days with my inlaws to allow my wife and her father to compete in sport, as we have done before, but work related issues mean that I will have to stay home while my wife and son will travel with my inlaws. While they are away, they will likely be getting up between 6 and 7am. They will get home on Sunday night, in time for our son to start the new school year on Monday. That means that they will need to be up by 7:45 on school days. The only way that my wife will get enough sleep will be to follow my lead and get to bed before midnight consistently. I expect that the few days away with her parents will help to reinforce the pattern.

If I can maintain the pattern, hopefully it will help my wife to do likewise, and will ultimately make our house a happier place, as I suspect that we are often both grumpy due to lack of sleep. As a side effect, if she gets up earlier on weekends, it might not be so difficult for me to get out en femme during the day, which will make me a lot happier.

The next challenge will be seeing what time I get home from the cafe night tonight, and hence whether I fit in my walking session and shower and still get to bed before midnight. I really don't want to miss the exercise, or be up after midnight, but I really need to be home by 10pm for that to all to work. I'm not sure that I've even left the restaurant by 10pm on any of the nights that I've been there in the last few years.