Sleep is important.
More important to those of us who have chronic conditions.
And nothing in my life changed more when I began living with my condition. Sleep became one of the most important things in my life after being diagnosed. It still is today, even though sometimes I forget.
You see when I was young and well, I slept very little. I could do a full day of work, go out that night, and still function the next day on 4-5 hours of sleep. I did have a lot of caffeine in my life in the form of soda, but still, I just didn’t need to sleep the way I do now. And let me tell you, you can get a lot more done when you are not trying to fit in 8-9 hours of sleep. There are literally more waking hours in the day, so more can be done.
The past couple of weeks, I remembered how much I like getting things done. It has been driving me to sleep less.
I know less sleep affects my physiology. I have been in much more pain because of the lack of sleep. But still, the drive to get things done has been more important than me feeling good. So, I continued to shun sleep for working on things. Or at least I thought I did.
Sometime last week, I realized that the lack of sleep was actually causing me not to get things done. I noticed how unproductive I became in the mid-afternoon because I got so tired that I couldn’t focus and then I waste 2-3 hours of my day trying to finish one thing. Each day, I felt more pain. And I knew that if I kept this up, I was going to make myself really sick and that would impact me for more than just the mid-afternoon, it could take me out of action for days even weeks.
So last night, I focused on getting to bed early. My sleep tracker says I got 8.5 hours of sleep. I don’t feel great yet, but I am going in the right direction.
Sleep is self-care for me. I am not the greatest at self-care, but I am practicing it more each day. And we women need to be practicing self-care more and more because in general, we are overcoming years and years of being taught to take care of other people and not ourselves.
So maybe we all just try each day to take care of ourselves a little better. Get a bit more sleep. Be just a tiny bit kinder to the world around us. Maybe, just maybe, that is what the world needs right now. Maybe that is why I needed to be reminded. Maybe that is why I am putting it out there.
Or maybe not. I might just need a nap, and that is all I can think about. So, I am going to go take one and hope that I wake up feeling better. And I hope you can do something today to feel better too. Happy napping! 🙂
Hey there gorgeous!
We are seemingly on the same wavelength (as usual). I have been more involved with taking my self-care more seriously, especially when it comes to my sleeping habits. I haven’t achieved perfection but I’m definitely working on it. Not sure if you are interested but I mentioned on Instagram how I’ve been meditating lately and started using an app called “Calm” which I REALLY REALLY love (and you know I don’t offer such love and devotion unless I really love something). Aside from meditation practices, they have “sleep stories” in which help you relax and drift off into a deep sleep. My favorite one is read by Matthew McConaughey called “Wonder” and I love it. If you are interested, I know they have a 7 day trial period… so if you think that would help you achieve sweet slumber, I highly recommend it!
I hope you are doing well and we need to catch up soon!!!
I like Calm too. It is a very good app. I also use one called Insight Timer and it has some nice targeted stuff for helping get to sleep and helping to wake up (which is another area I struggle). I am so happy to hear that you are taking self-care seriously since you are so involved in caring for another person. And I am more happy to hear you are doing well. We definitely need to catch up. :):)