This weekend, I was hit with the inevitable: exhaustion. Why? Because I thought that I could do everything I was doing at super hero tempo, and only recovering and resting on 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Yeah, that worked out well. In tears and feeling overwhelmed and so tired that I couldn’t get to sleep, I realized that I was cutting myself short. There is no way on earth that I should be teaching 5 fitness classes a week, weight training 5 days a week (in addition to teaching the classes), and working full-time, while taking care of a family all at once without truly resting. What I ended up with is an achy, tired body and mind, and a sick day from work.
Sleep is so important. This is the time when our body rebuilds and recovers from all the work we put it through day- in and day- out. Without sleep, we cannot function. We have to have it. After several days without sleep a person begins to feel groggy, and unable to focus, and by days 3 & 4 a person can begin to feel like they have the flu or worse. For me, I kept this going for the past 4 weeks.
It is common for so many people to put sleep on the back-burner. The comments and excuses I hear are: You only live once, I will catch up on my sleep on the weekend, no pain no gain, there aren’t enough hours in the day, and if I don’t get x-y-z done, the world will end (kind of dramatic, but you get the point).
On that note, let us just elaborate on each of the comments above…
1. You only live once - yes, this is true. We aren’t cats with 9 lives, we only get one life, one body. If we don’t take care of ourselves now, what will happen in the future? Will we be sick? What is it worth to put sleep on hold, if you are only going to end up that way? I think not.
2. I will catch up on my sleep on the weekend- I have said this to myself many times and it never happens. All the chores and activities that go on during the weekend never seem to allow for a much needed nap or sleeping in during the morning. Once you miss sleep, you can never make it up. It’s gone, forever. Sorry, there is no make-up test for missing sleep.
3. No Pain, No Gain- I am going to be blunt and I am sorry, but if this is you, you are crazy. Nothing should cause pain or suffering. To be healthy is to feel good. Enough said.
4. There aren’t enough hours in the day- While this may feel true at times, we all have the same amount of time - 24 hours total in a day. With this, it comes down to organization and prioritization. Get done what really needs to be done and then come bed time, whatever doesn’t get done just has to wait until the next day. In addition, really analyze your to do list you have in front of you. Do you really have to vacuum every day, have the house spotless, and so on? No, the world will not end if you do not have a perfect house (I am guilty of this one 100%). This brings up the last comment…
5. The world will end, I promise! What is important, what can wait, and what are the consequences if you don’t finish project x-y &z? Be honest with yourself. This can be hard. Soul searching really. Digging deep within ourselves This evaluation is the time to really sit down and focus on what is important to you and what will truly suffer if you don’t focus your time on them. Please tell me that on this list is sleep as one of the important things in life.
Examples on my list of importance are: Spending time with my kids both for fun things and for school related items such as homework and reading; Spending quality one-on-one time with my husband, Making sure my family has good nutritious food prepared and ready to go; planning my group fitness classes and music; loving and playing with my animals; Training at the gym, Having clean clothes for the family (this doesn’t necessarily mean putting it away-just making sure things are washed); Making sure bills get paid on time; and getting to bed before or no later than 9:00 p.m. so that I can be sure to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night.
Things that wait if I can’t get to them: Facebook, cleaning the house, “cleaning projects,” putting the laundry away, watching NetFlix, and work that I brought home because things are crazy at work ( I mean really, I don’t get paid for the extra time so why am I doing it?) and anything else that doesn’t fit in the items listed above.
We can all find time in our schedules if we sit down and think about it, and that extra time we find can be well spent with resting so that we can tackle on the important things in a happy and healthy state of mind.
For more information on why sleep is so important and the effects of lack thereof, click on the links below. These are just a few out there and trust me, there are a million more!
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