For me it's all about stress. Typically I can't get myself to fall asleep before 1am. Whenever I go to bed it just takes 1-2 hours to fall asleep. I just can't get my mind to shut off. I struggle to get up at 9:30am and need coffee to be functional in the mornings.
If I go out on a long camping trip I'll often not even bring a book. This means that once the sun goes down there is basically nothing to do. After a day or two I find myself easily falling asleep and sleeping through the night. When I come back home, if I still haven't begun to go back to work, it persists. I can easily just go to bed at 11:00 and get up at 8:00. It generally lasts until I go to work.
It's the anxiety of needing to get things done and maintain my appearance to others and to myself that really seems to keep me up. As I lie in bed there's a part of me that says I should have accomplished more during the day and that I should be doing something "productive". I'm working hard on meditation, mindfulness and self-awareness to reduce the anxiety, but what works best is to really remove myself from the stressors and go to a place where I really just can't do anything so my mind gives up.
I went camping near the end of December and had another week off for the new year. It was great. I was well slept and relaxed. Now in my first week back to work I've already fallen back into less than 7 hours of sleep per night.
If I go out on a long camping trip I'll often not even bring a book. This means that once the sun goes down there is basically nothing to do. After a day or two I find myself easily falling asleep and sleeping through the night. When I come back home, if I still haven't begun to go back to work, it persists. I can easily just go to bed at 11:00 and get up at 8:00. It generally lasts until I go to work.
It's the anxiety of needing to get things done and maintain my appearance to others and to myself that really seems to keep me up. As I lie in bed there's a part of me that says I should have accomplished more during the day and that I should be doing something "productive". I'm working hard on meditation, mindfulness and self-awareness to reduce the anxiety, but what works best is to really remove myself from the stressors and go to a place where I really just can't do anything so my mind gives up.
I went camping near the end of December and had another week off for the new year. It was great. I was well slept and relaxed. Now in my first week back to work I've already fallen back into less than 7 hours of sleep per night.
I guess I need to go camping again.