The behavior I chose to track was staying in bed after waking up, without sleeping and without using my phone. This includes lying still, staring at the ceiling, thinking, or drifting in and out of light rest. On average, this behavior lasted anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes after my initial wake-up.
I chose this behavior because it has a disproportionate impact on my mornings. Even though I wake up on time, staying in bed delays my day and often creates a feeling of being “behind” before I’ve actually done anything.
Duration & logging method
I tracked this behavior from Friday to Monday. I logged data once per morning, almost immediately after getting out of bed on some days, or later in the day on others. It was not particularly challenging, considering I basically only had one log per day, since the behavior occurred as a continuous block rather than in discrete events.
Each log included:
- Time I first woke up
- Time I physically got out of bed
- Time spent in bed awake (time first waking up then physically getting out of bed)
- How my body felt (e.g., heavy, neutral, alert)
- Emotional state (e.g., calm, resistant, anxious)
- Context (weekday vs weekend, obligations that day)
I used a notebook that I use and carry around usually, and kept the logging intentionally simple so it wouldn’t feel like another task that causes stress.
I had to log this behavior for my therapist and psychiatrist anyways, so this assignment served as extra motivation to do so. I have also developed some empathy towards myself in engaging it this behavior, so it puts less pressure on me as if I am doing something bad and more like something I noticed I have been struggling with. There has been a recent change to my lifestyle and health, and it might be related to this behavior, and that is something I am trying to figure out in hopes it helps me solve this issue.
Main learnings
The most important insight was that my staying in bed is not about sleepiness. On many mornings, I felt mentally awake. In fact I had many hours of sleep, yet I was somehow just resistant to transitioning out of bed. The behavior seemed to function as a buffer between the sleeping phase, especially my dreams, and real life and responsibility, rather than an extension of sleep.
Another key pattern was variability: the behavior lasted shorter on days when I had something urgent to do right away (i.e on Friday I promised to make a call with my best friend around 10/10:30; and on Monday I had class at 10:30)
What I’d do differently next time
If I were to repeat this experiment, I would log the time I went to bed the night before or when I fell asleep; maybe even what I did right before sleeping. I hear about a lot of factors (relating to right-before-sleep habits) that affect the quality of sleep and hence might affect the mood and emotional state as well as the quality of dream and the level of efficacy of restfulness during the night. All these might cause the anxiety in the morning and my dreams, and the need for that buffer to calm down.
