Last night, I got the most incredible night of sleep I’ve had in a long time. I went to bed early, and I slept alllllllll night long, and when I woke up this morning my first thought was:
“oh, wow, I forgot how this feels.”
It’s been so long since I’ve woken up feeling rested that I really had forgotten what it feels like. I didn’t need toothpicks to prop my eyelids open. I didn’t struggle to stay awake and I didn’t drag myself, eyes mostly closed, to the shower. I didn’t “rest” while leaning against the shower wall. It was amazing. You mean…you mean, this is how it’s supposed to feel?
After the crazy week I’ve had, I’m not surprised I finally crashed. I had 8 appointments with various doctors, dentists, Jockey shoppers, and other folks that necessitated lots of car time, lots of down-to-the-minute scheduling and tactical planning (having one car sucks at times). The kid has been super defiant, we’ve had a lot of financial stress (eff you taxes!), and work has been insane. So it’s not a huge shocker that Thursday night, when I didn’t have anything pressing on my plate, my body and brain finally went “uh, yeah. Peace out, we’re done.”
But it is a good reminder that, hey, I should do that more often (“that” being get a decent nights sleep). I’m really bad about staying up late–I tend to stay up until 12:00-12:30 each night, even though I (should) get up at 6:30–and it usually takes me a while to fall asleep. I also have a tendency lately to wake up multiple times a night, which means, basically, that I’m not getting that great of sleep most nights. And not sleeping well just makes EVERYTHING harder: anxiety, stress, dealing with a toddler, dealing with…well, dealing with anything, really. So this is maybe a hint that, hey, I should do this more often. You should too! We’ll all sleep together! (Wait. Err…not like THAT. You know what I mean!).
So, TL;DR version: I slept. It was awesome. I should do that some more, and so should you!
How about you? Do you stay up way too late like me? Do you feel like you get enough sleep?
Wow, that night of sleep sounds divine. I’ve completely forgotten what that feels like. Like you, I’ve gotten into a really bad habit of going to be late and just not sleeping well. I need to just go to bed earlier. PS I hate the tax man. He was so mean this year.
Oh I looooove that feeling! I don’t get it nearly often enough, but I remember that feeling of, “Oh, so THIS is what I’m supposed to feel like!” I’m always surprised that under the sleep-fog I’m actually a pretty patient and upbeat person. And every time it happens I think, “I should get a full night’s sleep more often,” but then Life happens and it’s another 14 months before I sleep soundly again. 🙂
God, yeah. My kids get up at 6 every day so I am also up at 6 (we have no door to our bedroom you see) and to be functional I have to be asleep by 10. I am pretty good about it because I get very little down time during the day and I have learned my lesson after six years but it took a while. My husband gets up at 5:30 to get a jump on the kids (and because he leaves for work at 7) and he is a good influence. He will stand over me when I’m at my computer and say “It’s 9:30. Time for bed. Come on.”
And yeah, it TOTALLY alters the mood. I remember when my 4 y/o started sleeping through the night at 18 months and after five days of full nights of sleep I was SMILING at people. It was a relief. I had thought my personality really had been replaced by Queen Bitch, but no. Just sleep deprivation. It’s a relief, and also not because how do you have a life AND get enough sleep? *Shrug*
On Friday night none of my children woke up at all, AND the baby slept all night long. First time ever.
I got 9 consecutive hours of sleep. And the next day? I felt AWFUL. Fatigued, and foggy, and just absolutely lethargic. I think 9 years of sleep deprivation has left me old and decrepit in the sleep category. I’m like a geriatric. I only need 6 hours and then I’m done.
BAH. Kids.
Sleep is one of those things that so many people forget the importance of. Without a good night’s sleep – everything else comes unhinged. Or it’s at least harder to deal with the unhinging… 🙂 So happy to hear you remember how good it feels.
As far as my sleep – let’s just not go there right now, okay? 🙂
I’m about 22 weeks pregnant, so I’m very aware of the fact that I need to keep up with my sleep while I still can. Unfortunately, my body hasn’t received that particular memo. I can’t stop waking up all night!
I’m typing this at six thirty am when I had no good reason to stay up this late nor have I any reason to be up early. You do the math.
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