I discussed sleep last week and want to dive into it more deeply this week.

Required listening.

2020 was the year of sleep. I prioritized quality sleep over everything else. This was tricky because I had done the opposite for so long. But I couldn’t ignore the dramatic benefits of sleep priority.

I experienced

• lifted spirits
• regular appetite
• focus and clarity
• fresh ideas in the morning and insights throughout the day
• easier to learn new things
• natural tiredness around the same time every evening
• sustained energy and tempermetn while teaching
• improved relationships

Once I experienced being well slept I couldn’t go back. I’m actually embarrassed now at how bad I am at waking up with an alarm.

Now I know just how much my mood, energy, stamina, and memory is impacted by how many hours of sleep I got the night before.

I already wrote about the changes I made in order to make sleep as easy as possble, but I’ll list them succinctly below.

• stop using alarms to wake up
• phone on ‘night shift’ 24/7
• invest in a good matress
• light blocking curtains
• try to make your room as cool as possible at night
• limit caffeine, alcohol, mirajuana
• don’t eat or exercise before bed
• transition to paper before bed (reading, journaling)
• meditate before bed (I do 25 minutes on a sitting cushion with my eyes closed)
• all devices on airplane mode at night (ideally turn off wifi as well)
• air purifier in the bedroom
• invest in sleep related things to show yourself it is important: fancy sheets, fancy pajamas, sleep tech (if you are into tracking and numbers), essential oils, etc.

I want to discuss a few challenges about sleep that might affect Suzuki teachers specifically…

TEACHING LATE AT NIGHT

I teach on a fixed schedule– from 3-8 every Tuesday through Friday– however I know many teachers who teach late into the night. Even teaching until 8:00pm feels late to me and my partner.

Remeber that if a lesson feels late to you then it probably feels very late to your student and especially their parent. You and your student aren’t getting the best from each other.

Because we often have the luxury of setting our own schedules I would encourage you to schedule more days with earlier evenings than a few days with late evenings. I know some teachers who have successfully implemented morning teaching, from 7-9am, as an alternative.

AMPED AFTER TEACHING

This coincides with the point above. If you feel amped when you finish teaching, as I often do, try a few of the following activities.

• schedule a 30 minute dinner break into your evening schedule so that you are sustaining your energy, you don’t need to make or eat food after you teach, and you build in a 30 minute break into your evening so you don’t feel like you are frantically moving from one student to the next
• turn the lights down immediately after teaching while you journal and close up the studio for the night
• if you are tempted to check texts and emails after you teach try Cal Newport’s work day shutdown
• use a cue when you get home that it is time to calm. Tea, bath, cleaning ritual (like putting away dishes or sweeping), making yourself a cocktail, or stretching and meditation.

I personally change my clothes right when I get home, make myself tea, check in with my partner, read if there is time, and then meditate fore 25 minutes before transitioning to bed. It helps that she likes to get to bed around 9 or 9:30. We naturally wake up between 6 and 6:30.

NO CLEAR CONTAINERS FOR SHALLOW WORK OUTSIDE OF LESSONS

Teachers struggle to keep clear containers for deep and shallow work because they work for themselves, are often juggling several work obligations/streams of income, and because, in contrast, lessons themselves are such a clear container. It is all toO easy to consider your teaching work as merely the lessons scheduled on your calendar.

So, when you finish teaching for the day you might be in the teaching headspace and want to work for another couple of hours on administrative duties or method development.

Here I recommend reading Cal Newport’s book ‘Deep Work,’ and becoming familiar with ways to trigger yourself into a deep work state earlier in the day. You also might want to explore timeblock planning to determine once per week what the optimal place is for that work.

If you’re anything like me then teaching inspires you to get cracking on administrative duties and teaching idea development right after the lesson, but the far better time for that is my wide open Mondays and Saturday afternoons. I can really dig into that work without needing to compromise my sleep. Often our best ideas are formulated over night. Simply posing yourself a question, writing about it during a MIQ journal session in the morning, and then fleshing out the ideas on your off days will yield incredibly potent thoughts. This is a great way to build out your teaching points for all of the repertoire, put together parent talks, and write many blog posts at once.

INCONSISTENT EVENING SCHEDULE

We stay up way too late for gigs and concerts. If you find yourself staying up until midnight or later regularly, then consider making that your consistent schedule and protecting the morning for full sleep. Gig musicians don’t make their own schedule and many (classical) concerts and events don’t even start until 7:30 or 8pm.

Again, you can set your own schedule. If you need to plan to sleep from 12am-8am then do it. If you need 2am to 10am, that’s okay too. Just make sure you can wake up without an alarm.

Remember: it is much more important to have a consistent sleep schedule than to wake up at a particular time every day.

I try to stick to the 10-6 cycle becuase it also uses the sunrise/sunset rhythms in addition to my bioligical cycles, but I am all in on teaching and don’t take gigs.

I would also recommended using the same, consistent, sleep routines on the weekend. It is physiologically impossible to make-up sleep debt. You’ll never get that lost sleep back. Don’t try to sleep in on the weekends to make up for that loss. It will just lead to even more inconsistency.

CAFFEINE BEFORE TEACHING

Because I ‘start’ my career work day at 3pm I had a routine of drinking coffee around 2pm to perk me up. Unfortunately, this meant I had a lot of caffeine still in my system as I was trying, dutifully, to fall asleep at 10.

One thing that has worked well for me is trading that cup of coffee for an Emergen-C or other vitamin/electrolyte rich supplement drink around 2pm. I also opt for fizzy drinks like Topo-Chico, LaCroix, or kombucha right before teaching. This gives me a treat with a boost right at the time we are hardwire to take a nap.

I might also experiment with something like a protein green smoothie or a Superhero muffin.