Things that WFH has taught me: Sleep

[hrj]

Back in the Before Times, I could regularly be heard to whine, "I could conquer the world if only I could get one good night's sleep first." I have a few chronic sleep issues. A rather light case of sleep apnea -- right on the line for recommending a CPAP, so I use one and notice the difference. Tinnitus that is highly noticeable when I'm trying to get to sleep or back to sleep -- which I manage by listening to low-volume audiobooks while sleeping. (I rather wonder whether that affects my sleep in other ways, but the trade-off is worth it.) And back in the Before Times, the crunch between getting up early enough to do my commute before the traffic got bad, and trying to cram in some productivity in the evenings.

When I first started working from home, my plan was to continue getting up on the same schedule as for a commute, but to get in some writing/productivity time before "the office". And, of course, with no evening commute, there was no need to stay up latish to get things done. And that worked for a while. But increasingly, I'm just enjoying the ability to wake gently with the sun rather than an alarm, to lie in bed for a while, to have a cooked breakfast in the morning. Mind you, I'm a morning person, so I'm still normally out of bed by 7am, usually earlier. And I still have a set of online tasks I usually get to over breakfast. But except for unusual circumstances (e.g., online meetings with colleagues in Germany or the like), I'm waking "naturally" and not rushing in the morning.

And I have all the time in the world in the evening after work. I do yard work -- in the daylight! I cook dinners. I read books over dinner. I watch shows on Netflix! I'm not as computer-productive in the evenings as I'd hoped I'd be, in part because WFH involves a greater percentage of time staring at a screen than being in a physical office, and my eyes and brain get tired of it. But I don't feel like I have to steal sleep time for my evening productivity. My Apple Watch reminds me that I want to get to bed by 9:30 (planned sleep time is 10-6) and I generally pay attention.

I never have that feeling of "there's sand between my brain and my skull" feeling I get when I'm underslept. I usually get up at the same time on weekends, rather than sleeping in to try to make up time. And at no time during quarantine have I gotten in the viscous circle of underslept > insomnia > underslept > insomnia > sleeping pills > groggy > repeat. Never felt any need for sleeping pills whereas in the Before Times there'd be at least once a month where I'd take half a dose to get me past the gate.

I think this is what "enough sleep" feels like.

Comments

[kareina]

Oh, "enough sleep" sounds lovely. Congratulations on achieving it, I hope you can keep it as a normal part of your life.

[green_knight]

I'm glad you get enough sleep and the confirmation that you *can* sleep well. I hope you'll can carry this over when office time starts up again (maybe keep a couple of days a week WFH?)

[hrj]

My employer is planning for a very flexible "hybrid" work model where people whose jobs allow for remote work will have that option (pending individual department policy, but given the support from upper management, I think there would be a lot of pushback if a particular manager tried for a hardline position). They aren't planning on starting to allow us back on site until maybe the end of the year in any event, because they're doing a lot of office remodeling to support the new model (and assuming that no more than 50% of office staff will be on site at any one time). My management is very supportive of flexibility in both directions (some of my coworkers very much want to be back on site full time). Depending on how things fall out, I may be on site anywhere from one day a month to one day a week, aside from any special requirements of my investigations.

[green_knight]

That sounds excellent. I'm glad your employer is sensible and taking the long view.