I have never been one forsleeping.

I was feeling pretty lousy, and my doctor at the time asked me about mysleep habits.

At risk sounded sort of bad, so I did check myself.

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Courtesy of Author

Ever since, I have prioritized sleep.

The idea that we basically spend one-third of our lives unconscious.

Cant I just be superhuman instead?

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An iced coffee I mindlessly bought out of habit but didn’t even need.

Needless to say,bedtimes and consistent sleep hoursare not my cups of tea.

Not for a whole year, but for at least a week (lets not get crazy now).

Now, sometimes, my bedtime ended up being 10:30 P.M. or whatever (because, exhaustion).

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A well-rested, no-makeup selfie.

The bottom line was: I wanted to get in that recommended number of hours every night.

I also noted how I felt, how I looked, and how I behaved that week.

Heres how what happened.

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I was supposed to be in bed, but was here instead. Oops.

note: It is.

Learn caffeine affects your sleep here.]

Fewer CravingsAnother bonus of feeling well-rested?

Thankfully, they seemed noticeably less severe in the week I was doing the experiment.

Normally, for me, food is a soothing mechanism when Im feeling less-than-awesome.

This probably includes when Im super-sleepy and have a bunch of stressful deadlines on my plate.

But during the experiment, I noticed I craved sweets less and just generallyread my hunger cues better.

Better SkinTheres this secret way I know if I am well-hydrated and well-rested.

I have slightly droopy eyelids in my natural state.

As a byproduct, my skin also wasnt so bad either.

However, I didnt anticipate waking up early.

And toward the end of the experiment, sometimes I did.

Thanks for playing, but #WAKEUP.

When You Straight-Up Forget You Have An Experiment To DoI could have used some more regularity, but alas.

There are fun times to be had out of doors.

Not to mention, I TOTALLY FORGOT I WAS DOING THIS EXPERIMENT ONE NIGHT.

So, its not like this was perfect sleep science of extremely on-point bedtimes and planning.

Because it slipped my mind.

I would not say I felt more rested during this experiment.

I totally believe in the power of consistency.

The reduction in cravings alone would have been enough motivation for me to at least attempt some modest changes.

But at the end of the day, you know what your body needs.

So, heed its signals.

The National Sleep Foundations seven to nine hours?

I highly recommend you do the week-long experiment, and possibly partake in some revelatory life changes.

As for me, I do not actually think my body needs eight hours of sleep each night.

Maybe its just programmed that way, after all these years ofnotgetting eight hours.

That said, theres probably a sweet spot in there somewhere.

I am going to keep working on that sleep sweet spot.

I am going to climb into bed at 11:30 P.M. on weeknights as often as possible.

And I am also going to remember how stellar mywinged eyelinerlooked on my un-sleep-deprived lids.

We all need it.

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