Friday, September 21, 2018

Fitful sleep

I have a Fitbit now.  That might not be news.  I can't remember, and can't trouble myself to do a search.  But I have a Fitbit, and I've been tracking steps and sleep for months now. 

I do this thing where I charge my Fitbit every day.  I used to charge it whenever it was low, but then I'd invariably charge it for hours until the battery was recharged, but while it was charging I'd feel like I couldn't move lest my steps not count.  And I use it to chart my sleep too, so it's not like I could plug it in at night...how would I know if I slept or not??

Things were so much simpler before Fitbits, when you could "track" your sleep just by remembering when you went to bed and calculating based on when you get up how many hours that was.  But my Fitbit tells me about deep sleep and rem sleep and wakeups and all sorts of stuff that I couldn't see before, so...I can't charge it at night.

So anyway...I hop in the shower, and I charge my Fitbit for the 15-20 minutes it takes me to get ready, and then right before I get Lily out of bed and take her downstairs to start our morning routine, I unplug it and strap it back on my wrist. 

It never fully recharges.  It's always perpetually about 3/4 charged.  But...it also never goes dead.  There's always enough to get by day to day.  I was explaining this to someone when I realized I sleep the same way. 

Lily wakes me up at least once a night, I go to bed late, I wake up early.  But I have established this routine for so long that it seems normal to me.  I'm never fully recharged, but I'm also never empty.  I'm always running at about 3/4 charge. 

I was looking back over the past three years that I had a Fitbit, and there's only one day in the past three years where my sleep was 7 hours or more.  I've gotten close a few times, but for the most part I get about 5 1/2 hours per night...and as long as I get that little bit of charge, I seem to be functional.  Like my Fitbit. 

I don't know how many years of life this is draining from me, but for now...this is workable.  This is fine. 

Anyway, if you're not charging your fitbit while you shower, you're missing out on my sweet life hack.  But try to get more sleep.