Behavior Change Summary My behavior change project was to get more sleep at night. The goal of my behavior change plan was to get at least seven or eight hours of sleep and to determine the amount of sleep that was best for my body. I wanted to feel energized when I woke up in the morning, and to continue that feeling throughout the day. My plan was to have set times that I would need to be in bed by. I began with the amount of sleep I was currently getting each night, which was only about four or five hours. I then increased the amount of sleep I was getting by a half hour, and continued to get that amount of sleep for a week, until I increased the amount by another half hour. I repeated this process each week until I received eight hours of sleep per night. I was not to take any naps during the day if I did not receive the planned amount of sleep that night. The reason for this type of plan was because I knew I would not be able to just increase the amount of sleep to eight hours right off the bat. I needed to gradually get my body used to that kind of sleep each night. I feel that in a sense I did accomplish my goal. Although I am not at exactly eight hours of sleep per night, I have found the number of hours of sleep each night that my body needs to feel rejuvenated. I have found that eight hours of sleep each night is too much for my body. I wake up feeling way too tired. However, when I was at weeks three, four, and five, I woke up feeling awake and energized and it stayed that way throughout the entire day. During those weeks I was receiving six to seven hours of sleep at night. Given that every person’s body is different, I feel that this amount of sleep is the perfect amount for me. Finding that perfect amount of sleep was part of my behavior change goal. It was difficult to figure out and increasing the amount of sleep I received each night was a huge challenge for me, but I feel that it definitely paid off in the end because I now know and am able to get the perfect amount of sleep for my body.

Throughout these past eight weeks, I have endured many barriers with my behavior change plan, but also many successes. The biggest barrier for me was to actually get in bed and go to sleep at the planned time. I always tend to find things to do or lose track of the time and end up getting to sleep way later than I planned. I also struggled with getting my homework done in time so that once I was done hanging out with my friends I could just come home and go to bed. Another barrier that I encountered was that my body was not used to the sleep and I just simply could not fall asleep on time. However, despite these I was able to adjust and work through it. Throughout the past eight weeks I have had many successes with my behavior change project. Knowing that I am capable of getting enough sleep at night and that I can feel energized throughout the day really makes me hopeful that I can continue this project throughout my career and for the rest of the college year. I succeeded in getting enough sleep at night and figuring out what works best for my body. Overall, I feel that was one of the biggest accomplishments throughout this whole project. Knowing that I can tell when my body is exhausted, when it needs more sleep, or when I have had enough sleep is really important. If I know how much sleep my body needs to feel energized the next day then I can make a constant effort to get at least that much sleep per night. In the future I am definitely going to continue this behavior. I know that getting the proper amount of sleep at night is a crucial aspect of any person’s life and I feel great when I do get the right amount. I think that this behavior modification was really beneficial to me in the long run. It taught me how to monitor the amount of sleep that I was getting and to carefully listen to what my body is telling me. In the future I will pay much closer attention to both of these things. I will take note of what my body is saying and act accordingly. Another thing that I am going to do is pay closer attention to the time. I need to make sure that I have all of my things done before I go out because otherwise I do not give myself enough time. I think that both of these actions will be very beneficial to me in the rest of my college years and the rest of my life.