ivy wrote:I wasn't really sure how to do this but am getting up at roughly the same time each morning.
The advice I read years ago and now follow with very few exceptions is this: Get up at exactly the same time. Obviously context matters. If your job is operating a crane that lifts tons of girders up 20 floors on a new building, you might want to adjust your sleep time if there is some disruption in your sleep pattern. Too much fatigue could be a danger. Dr. McDougall mentions this in the article, doesn't he?
For most people, getting up at the same time daily may mean feeling tired some days and not others. Life cannot be squeezed into one "final" pattern. I don't think there is any one "right" amount of sleep for everyone, every day, and under every circumstance. Sometimes, I seem to need only about four hours of sleep per night, for several nights, and then at other times, I seem to need more.
Last night I was really tired in the evening and dragged myself through evening chores and fell into bed exhausted [...]
Were you physically exhausted or mentally exhausted -- or both? There is a big difference. I sometimes make the mistake of thinking I need sleep when I am mentally exhausted but not physically tired. That is a recipe for restlessness. The cure for mental exhaustion, in the absence of physical exhaustion, is to do something different than what I have been doing -- even something simple like go for a walk. It restores me mentally (for now) while tiring me physically (for later).
[...] so I thought, I guess I need a little more sleep....but I didn't actually fall asleep until around 10.
Do you stretch an hour or so before sleeping? I find it helps a lot to use yoga-style stretches of the big muscles and tendons, especially the hamstrings.
Do you have a sleep-routine? Here is mine: After stretching, I get in bed and breath deeply and slowly (in through the nose, out through the mouth). Once I have that routine going, then I tell myself to think about some project that needs doing -- perhaps cleaning the kitchen floor. B-o-r-i-n-g. I usually fall asleep quickly.
And then I found myself wide awake in the middle of the night.
This happens to me too sometimes. I use the time to get something done, if I truly am "wide awake" in the middle of the night. Often, however, just thinking about doing some chore at 1 am makes me sleepy. My favorite sedative is thinking about doing sewing that needs to be done for repair of clothing. Zzzzzzzz.
How do I figure out how much sleep I actually need? Will I just automatically know? Or is there an adjustment period? I wish I had in instruction book.
We have to write our own instruction book for life. As for sleep:
experiment. Isn't that what Dr. McDougall suggested in his article? Keep a journal. Try different lengths for different conditions. For example, I notice that, not surprisingly, I sleep much more soundly at night if I have worked out by lifting weights late in the afternoon or early in the evening, followed by stretching an hour or so before getting into bed. (The stretches should not be backbends or similar moves which are energizing rather than relaxing.)