How to sleep in on a weekday

You can re-create slow weekend wake-ups, even during the week

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is about how to sleep in on a weekday. Yes,
you heard that right. It might be possible. You just

(00:25):
need to tweak your mindset of what this looks like. So.
I know some of my listeners are woken up by
young kids every morning, weekdays and weekends alike. But as
your kids get older and more independent, or if you
don't have kids, you might relish those weekend mornings when
you don't wake up to an alarm. You slowly move

(00:48):
in and out of sleep, enjoying a pleasant grogginess and
a gentle approach to getting up. That tends to not
be the case on weekdays. Most of us wake suddenly
to an alarm. But with a little bit of strategizing,
you can in fact recreate that slow start most mornings
if you want. The key is to make sure that

(01:12):
you do not have a sleep debt on weekdays. So
first figure out how much sleep you need. After tracking
my time for more than ten years, I know my
sleep set point is somewhere between seven point three and
seven point four hours per day. I am guessing that
you have a sleep set point two, it's probably the

(01:35):
average of what you sleep over about a month when
you include weekends and holidays. Then remind yourself what time
you need to wake up on weekday mornings. I set
my alarm for either six twenty or six forty, depending
on the day and if kids are taking the bus
are getting driven to school. Then be diligent about getting

(01:58):
into bed at a time that allows you to get
the amount of sleep you need. Someone who needs seven
and a half hours of sleep and who needs to
wake up at six thirty am needs to be in
bed before eleven pm. Someone who needs eight hours of
sleep would need to be in bed by ten thirty pm.
Set some sort of reminder for about thirty minutes before

(02:20):
this time so you can start winding down getting all
ready for bed and being in bed and then reading
or chatting with your partner or whatever it is you do.
If you do this night after night, and you are
active enough during the day that you tend to be
tired at your bedtime, then you will start to notice
something interesting. If you deliberately go to bed a tiny

(02:43):
bit before your official bedtime, then you will start to
wake up before your official waking time in the morning.
You will be able to slowly drift up before your
alarm goes off. You will be able to lie there
feeling your nice pillow and blankets and enjoying the quiet,
or seeing the light of the sunrise, or whatever it is.

(03:06):
You might be able to go in and out of dreamland.
That can be particularly nice too. I have certainly been
trying this these days. If I have my lights out
by ten forty five pm on a day when I
can wake up at six forty am the next morning,
then I will most likely be drifting up before my alarm.

(03:27):
The math works, I'm probably asleep by ten fifty five pm,
and then seven point four hours later gets us to
about six twenty am. If the alarm goes off at
six forty am, I am getting my groggy slowly waking
up feels like I'm sleeping in time before my alarm. Now,

(03:47):
of course, going to bed on time is easier said
than done. People often get caught up on doing just
one more thing, but you cannot really make more time.
You can get your time at night, or you can
get it in the morning. I kind of like the
groggy morning pleasant time more than fifteen extra minutes spent

(04:08):
looking at Instagram. But we can all make our own choices.
One of the reasons to set a reminder about thirty
minutes before bedtime is that it nudges you to make
a decision. Are you doing something worthwhile? Then absolutely stay up.
But if you're just reading people's ridiculous conspiracy theories on
social media, to yourself a favor and put it into

(04:32):
that when you feel like you are sleeping in on
a weekday morning, your future self will be thanking you.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

(04:56):
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

(05:20):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.