Time To Sleep

So I'm starting a post about Healthy Sleep Habits and it's 10:42 pm and past my planned bedtime.  Not a good start.  So I'm going to try to make this quick.

How long should we really sleep?  That is the question I've been struggling with for the past year.

About a year ago, I started weaning myself down to four hours of sleep a night.  Why do you ask would I want to sleep only four hours?  I found myself entertaining and caring for my son and leaving little room for my own pleasures.  Instead of working out at the gym, I was roller skating.  Instead of reading at the library/book store, I was in the video store.  Instead of watching Oprah recordings, I was watching Phineas and Ferb.  Instead of cleaning my bedroom and relaxing, I was helping with spelling tests and book reports with books, paper tablets, pencils, and toys all over my bed.

So I started to stay up just a little longer after putting my son to bed.  I wanted to find time for myself, by myself.  Maybe to jump on the treadmill, read a little, catch up on some recorded tv episodes. I don't know,  just doing whatever Yvette wanted to do.  So one hour became two, then two hours became three and then I was going to bed, on average, at 1:00am and rising for the next day at 5am.  This routine took about two months to master.  And pretty soon, my internal time clock was "needing" only four hours of sleep....even on the weekends.

Unfortunately, there was a price to pay or should I say many prices to pay.

With four hours of sleep, I was drowsy on the drive to and from work.  I was sleepy at my workstation.  I'd be drowsy in the evenings reading to Tayshaun.  Slowly more and more negative symptoms began to arise from lack of sleep.  My eyes looked tired.  I didn't have any energy.  I was snacking more.  I didn't want to exercise or even clean the house.  I was using all my energy at work and on Tayshaun and had little else to give.  I was pooped all the time.  I was even asked to take a drug test at work.  I'm told they lottery pick those they ask but I wondered if it was due to my sleepy look.

What should have been obvious just didn't click in my mind.  Maybe because I wasn't willing to give up my personal time (after 10pm).  I thought maybe my age was catching up to me.  I wasn't happy with my lazy body and mind but I wasn't sure how to fix it.  So I went to a bio-restoration physician -which in hindsight wasn't a bad idea.  All in all, I'm pretty healthy.  But I did learn I was lacking in my thyroid level so was given a prescription.  And I was recommended vitamins.  I'm not one for taking even Tylenol so I really had to force myself to take these prescriptions and vitamins but I was willing to do it...just to feel better. In my medical history, I was asked how much sleep I got nightly.  I exaggerated and wrote down six hours.  When the doc reviewed my documents,  he promptly recommended that I add a few more hours to my sleep time - which essentially he was telling me I needed eight hours of sleep.  How could I give up my four hours of Yvette time???

I started researching "how many hours of sleep do we need" and read many startling facts.  Very short sleep is attributed to many illnesses.  Minimal sleep loss takes a toll on your mood, energy, and ability to handle stress.  The quality of your sleep directly affects the quality of your waking life, including your mental sharpness, productivity, emotional balance, creativity, physical vitality and even your weight.

It's so obvious.  And I knew this subconsciously.  I just hadn't been willing to change.  Well in the past two months, I've slowly been working up to seven hours of sleep.  I can't quite get the eight in but I'm trying.  Even with seven, I wake up at four hours but I'm able to fall back to sleep.  But then I'm up again two hours later.  And I have to force myself to clear my mind to get that extra hour.  Sometimes, I start thinking about the laundry I need to wash and I want to get up.

This week, I had a night of six uninterrupted hours of sleep and slept the additional hour before getting up for the day.  I am feeling positive differences.  I'll post again in a month or so with an update.  Hopefully, I'll be sleeping eight uninterrupted hours of sleep.

Good Night!