One of my stated commandments is “sleep makes me more productive and happy”. For many of you, this would not need to be a commandment. You have commonsense and understand that sleep is important to function well. The rest of you own my previous definition of sleep which was “I can sleep when I am dead” or something like that. I so prided myself on “living” on 3 hours a night. (I might add here that I use the term “living” rather loosely). I was running on adrenaline, caffeine, sugar and who knows what else. Late last year, I made a commitment to get at least 7 hours a night, most nights. I did not want to set a goal that I knew was unrealistic for me and say 8+ hours each and every night. What my intention was meant to indicate to myself was a shift–making 7+ hours the norm NOT the exception. I could have a short night every now and then but typically I would get a good nights sleep.
I did fear in doing this that I would get less done; afterall I was shortening my day. But just like doing one thing at a time and decreasing the amount of multitasking, this had the opposite effect. I got more done, felt better doing it and was more pleasant to be around! I think the sleep increase is one of those changes that I wished I had done years ago. A short night of sleep now on occasion looks more like 6 hours. A year ago 6 would have been a tremendous amount to get! It’s a bit like the treadmill–when I started, I could go only so fast and far. Now I cool down at that speed that used to be my goal.
Sleep is good! I have learned to treasure and protect that time. I love my bed, my sheets, my jammies, falling asleep to jazz music, snuggling with my husband, all of it. On most mornings I awake before the alarm goes off at 5:45 a.m. and I think that is such a good sign that my body likes it too! How much sleep to you get? How much do you think you need?
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