In this week’s Sleep Diaries, a 25-year-old police public protection bureau officer wonders why she’s so tired all the time.

A little about me:

Age: 25

Occupation: police public protection bureau officer

Number of hours sleep you get each night: five to six hours

Number of hours sleep you wish you got each night: eight to nine hours straight

Any officially diagnosed sleep-related problems: none

Do you measure your sleep in some way (e.g. using your phone or wearable): nope

How much water you drink on average per day: 1 litre and 1.5 probably on exercise days

How much exercise I do on average per week: three to four hours a week.

Day 1

I go to sleep around 12:30am with an alarm set for 7am, and put on my rain sounds to help me drift off. I wake up at 5:05am, however, and wind up tossing and turning until 6am, before giving up and picking up my phone.

I know at this point I will not make it to the office for 8am, as I’m so exhausted, and so I begin texting colleagues to let them know I will be working from home. This makes me feel uneasy as I haven’t worked from home in a while now and my usual spot is now the office.

Despite giving myself permission to sleep until 8am, I spend another hour feeling wide awake, and before I know it, my alarm is going off again.

I still can’t muster the energy to get out of bed until 8:30am, but when I do I immediately go to my desk and log on. The day is sluggish and my mood is off. I try to make myself feel better with a big cooked breakfast rather than my usual on-the-go stuff, but I still felt pretty lethargic.

I work through until 7pm, when I have a quick FaceTime with my sister. Afterwards, I force myself to workout because I’m bulking and training and had a call with my PT yesterday, so I’d feel super guilty if I didn’t!

Afterwards, I don’t want to do anything as I’m exhausted, but I make sure I complete my skincare routine before bed. I nod off to sleep around 11:30pm.

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