This year, Ramadan is in the summer, so I have the benefit of staying up and sleeping in. Perhaps I shouldn’t call it a benefit because, in reality, I have been staying up until 10:00 AM and waking up at 6:00 PM. This is because I have to go to the mosque at 10:30 PM and return at 12:00 AM and the fact that I stay up until 3:00 AM; since that is when sahoor is (sahoor is basically an early breakfast). After that I stay up to pray and finish off any dishes. Once I am done with those I can, “officially” go to bed at around 6:00 AM. I say “officially” because once I get in bed at 6:00 AM I don’t fall asleep until 10:00 AM. This has been going on for almost three weeks, and is the reason I wake up so late in the day. Let me the first to say that this sleep schedule has been draining me emotionally and physically. No one else in my family has this problem, since they go to bed around midnight and wake up around 7:00 AM to go to work.

As I stated before, my typical sleep schedule compromised my physical and emotional being. Whenever I woke up so late, I would wake up with back pain, chest pain, headaches, stomachaches, and drained of my energy. I would also wake up angry and continue being angry unless I started to feel unmotivated, and would slowly drift into sadness. In essence, my days were not going smoothly; everything I experienced gave me an insight into what it is like to be old for some people. I truly think that I was developing some form of depression throughout the month, because of my terrible sleep schedule. So, I decided to break the cycle for the sake of my well-being.

I carried my day out as usual, I went to pray at the mosque and woke up for sahoor, but decided to listen to a couple ASMR videos before I officially got in bed at 6:00 AM. I did not listen for long, about 30 minutes, just enough until I became drowsy and could no longer hold up my phone. I finally fell asleep, and woke up around 1:00 PM; still late but much better than before. When I woke up today I didn’t have any pain, nor did I feel drained of my energy! It was like a miracle, I slept earlier and woke up earlier and just that cured me of my ailments! I was brimming, and am still brimming, with energy! The fact that I woke up feeling amazing made me particularly happy as well. It’s not everyday that I get a good rest, so I am happy that I got one today. I do not feel like I am going to slip into my usual down feeling; instead, I feel motivated and excited! I feel like I can accomplish something today that I wasn’t able to before!

It takes about 21 days to change a habit, obviously after Ramadan I will no longer need to stay awake until 3:00 AM. I can go to sleep sooner and wake up earlier, I’m hoping my new cycle will consist of me going to bed early so I can wake up early! I never thought of myself as a morning person, I need to rethink that!