From Topsy-Turvey to Groovy

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The two week project to switch from night owl to early bird has gone from feeling topsy-turvey to groovy in just the last two days.  I woke without alarm between 5 and 5:38 the last two mornings and both Sunday and Monday nights was asleep by 10ish.  The key I discovered is to be already in bed and relaxed when my natural circadian rhythm hits a down point between 8:30 and 9:30pm.  Not starting the go-to-bed routine but already there with head in the game.  Because if I miss it I get a second wind around 10pm that carries me past midnight no matter how tired I am and even with the night meds in my system tho they make me useless for any kind of productive activity.

That means that I have to have all me necessary tasks completed before dinner so that when I finish reading to Mom at 8pm I can call my husband for our good-night chat while taking my meds and lay down by nine.  One of those necessary tasks is posting which I'm trying to get fitted into my pre-lunch hours.  This morning tho, my computer was busy updating something when I tried to start working on it and then I had to start getting ready for my appointments with the med nurse and my counselor and fix lunch for Mom.

The med nurse has per my request added a second 10mg tab of Adderall so that I'm covered from 8 to 8 for both the brain work in the mornings and the physical activities in the afternoons.  Everybody observing me on it seems to agree that it has been quite beneficial for me.  I'm more focused, more active, more social, more creative, more spontaneous, more flexible...

Now that I've had two days in a row that look and feel successful I'm going to start requiring more of myself for both the morning brain-work and the afternoon physical and social.  That is what I consider the skeleton of the schedule.  Now it is time to flesh it out with specific tasks and routines.  Getting posted before lunch and exercise after lunch are the two biggies.

My original plan was to get to a 4am wake up but my husband has cautioned me not to pin my sense of success on that goal as it may not fit my circadian rhythm and thus not be doable.  Since getting a minimum of 7.5 hours of sleep is one of the non-negotiable points for reasons of both physical and mental health that would mean being asleep by 8:30.

So I'm in the process of letting go of that as my goal.  But I wanted to hang onto an uninterrupted 8hr brain-work block for writing and reading so I asked Mom if we could schedule lunch for between 1 and 1:30 instead of 12:30 to 1.  Often she has not been ready yet by noon or 12:30 anyway but once I've interrupted my work to come ask it is too late for me to continue productively.

Another big milestone reached today when the med nurse did not have us make an appointment for next month.  She left it open-ended saying I can call if I have concerns and call to have prescriptions renewed each month.  Which my sister has explained to me means that she considers having reached a maintenance level on the meds.