Quote for the Day

"A dream doesn't become a reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work" -Colin Powell

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Sleepy Tales

People who blog have various ways of coming up with a topic to write about. Sometimes the ideas come at strange times. Mine for this post came as I was trying to go to sleep last night. I know for me personally it wasn't the best time. It's always hard to sleep in different surroundings and that was my problem in this case.

How many people through there life have heard, "Don't sleep your life away?". I know I heard it. Probably not as frequently as most. My parents were very regimented about sleep. As a little girl I faithfully went to bed at 8:30p.m. until I was in high school and then it was 9:00p.m. It was never fun going to sleep when it was still light out. But in my parents defense it did teach me to keep things on track and without fail I got at least eight hours of sleep every night. As I got older I went through staying up later but rarely did any all nighters like some of my friends.

While I was skating it wasn't uncommon to have ice time at odd hours. Sometimes it was 11:00 p.m. sometimes it was 4:00 a.m. back then the time didn't really make a difference because the frigid temperature would keep you awake and to reach our goal we took what time was available.

It seems as I get older getting quality sleep becomes a job in itself. Recently I saw statistics that said you should get at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. I try to get about 6-7 hours but lately that has even become more difficult. Also women have a much harder time falling asleep. That was really no surprise to me. Women have far too much on their minds and can't turn that brain machine off just too sleep. Also another telling factor is what I like to call the Goldilocks Syndrome. At a certain point in my life I was able to sleep in the bed that was nice and soft, sometimes I can sleep in a bed that is really hard, but right now I just want to be able to take a warm blanket and comfortable pillow and find a bed that is just right.

When my kids were babies I prided myself to be able to wake up at a moments notice, now I would rather just be given the opportunity to say ok mind, shut off, its time for bed now go to sleep!

We all know we are in a sleep deprived world. People are working longer hours because they have too, we schedule ourselves in all aspects of activities far too much and really don't get a chance to experience the pleasures of life. We can't try and make up for the sleep we are deprived of it just doesn't work that way.

Somehow I hear that little voice in my head saying to me, "there is too much going on, you can wait to sleep when you are dead". A sobering fact or sleepy tale, you be the judge.

1 comment:

L S Fisher said...

I always say I can sleep when I take the big sleep. Seriously, not getting enough sleep is at the bottom of most of my health problems. It's even a major cause of weight gain. That alone should be enough to get me to bed on time. I just don't have enough time each day to do all the things I want to do.