A blackout last night (and with the number of local bushfires it wasn’t all that surprising) meant that I was without an alarm, so a natural sleep was called for. I woke up after a little less than 4 hours. What? How about the 90 minute cycles?
Firstly, I don’t exactly feel refreshed. My hairstyle indicates that I’ve been rolling around a lot (and no, I’m not going to post photographs of it); I woke up lying on my side, which is extremely unusual for me; and it’s already hot. My mouth feels dry despite the bottle of water beside my bed. In short, it wasn’t a particularly good night’s sleep.
Following nap
That was a good one. Despite it being a little cooler today (it’s all relative – the pool still looked enticing), I held the scheduled workout until 18:00; and napped straight afterward. No problem at all in falling asleep.
I’m still trying to work out just how long my typical sleep cycle is (the 90 minute average still sounds about right), and tonight’s ‘What’s that noise?‘ reaction to the alarm suggests that I’d already started into the second cycle when I was woken up. Knowing this will directly impact one variable – the time allowed to get to sleep. Currently it’s up to 30 minutes, but long-term I’d be happy with no more than 10. For any style of sleeping.