tonight i will be starting day one of my 3 over night shifts. not too thrilled about it, but im making the best of it by preparing for it.

ive done some research on sleep cycles and what i have found the most interesting is that napping does not equal sleeping. why? because of a special phase called REM. it takes a lot of time to get into this phase which then turns into an up and down cycle. so if you are only getting a few hours sleep and napping you are not getting a one to one trade off.

if you sleep 7-8 hrs a night you should get like 4 phases of REM (each cycle is about 90 minutes, plus whatever time it takes you to fall asleep) however i will be getting about 5 hrs of sleep (which isnt HORRIBLE like i thought itd be, since i dont have class til 11 somedays 9 :,( ) 5 hrs means ill get about 2 cycles of REM. So in order to stay a little more on track i plan on taking a 1.5-2hr nap in the afternoon to get one more cycle in. i hope this works!

its really important when working night shifts to retain as much of a normal lifestyle as possible. so i plan on getting plenty of exercise in and eating super healthy. we are about to go to the store and load up of fruits and other yummies! maybe ill get a sleeping mask too, and some ear plugs… (another interesting fact, humans have been sleeping at night since the beginning of time. we have developed a rhythm (circadian) and things like light will disrupt it!)

ive been using a website called sleepyti.me to help kind of understand what the sleep cycles are like. essentially you type in the time you would like to wake up and they tell you what times you should go to bed to feel the most rested, OR what time you would like to fall asleep and they will tell you what time you should wake up! its pretty great!

at any rate. i just thought id babble some of the interesting things i found out.

i went for a run yesterday, today i did some yoga, tomorrow i plan on going for another similar run and adding some strength training afterward.

aaahhhh i love life!