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?