A strategy for always getting“sleep in”

I can not get myself to be late for work. We have early morning meetings, plus I am the boss in my ward. We have a saying here“上梁不正，下梁歪！”。It literally means if a boss behaviors poorly, then his staff will follow. I can never let that happen in my area. After all, if I can not make it, how can I expect my colleagues make it. In other words:“己所不欲勿施于人！”

But I have to work six mornings out of a week. We only take one and a half days off for the convenience of our patients, according to the words from management group from our hospital. Plus, I am a night owl, and I enjoy my evenings. So getting up at 6:30am in the morning really gives me extra stress.

I had these moments that when I woke up, it has already been 7:30am! I jumped out of my bed, rushing to my bathroom, rinsing my teeth…in one or two minutes, I was running to my hospital. Then I had these nightmares, and I woke up at 8am or even later. When I got to my ward, everyone was there standing around the nurse’ station waiting for me! Of course, I have my alarm on my cell phone. But when it rang, I was often woken up from fast sleep, and I was still so sleepy… It was fine to have five more minutes on bed, I told myself. Then I fell asleep again. Afterwards, I made myself a big rush!

Ok, now to the point, I have developed this strategy: I turned on my clock alarm at 6:10am, 6:20am, and 6:30am respectively. When it rang the first time, I was woken up and I just did one thing, turning the minute hand to 6:20am, then fall asleep again. When it rang the second time, I did the same, but ok, now I was awake. Even now I still have time to stay in bed, just like many people who have the experience of sleep in. Of course, when the clock rang the last time, I am ready to go. Have you got it?

If you are woken up from a fast sleep and have to get up immediately, you often feel you don’t get enough sleep. But if you are waken up and you fall asleep again, from your fast sleep to you shallow sleep, to be woken up, you’ll feel much better, then you also get to take some time lying in your warm bed…This really creates the feeling of your Sunday mornings when you sleep in. I know this is a little tricky, but it works!