by Terry Billups
Do you get up in the morning because you’ve had enough sleep or because you need/want to get up and going?
I was always the latter!!!
As a child/teenager/college student I hated missing anything, so, consequently, I went to bed late and got up super early for a kid (6:00 AM). I loved all the moments I experienced throughout the day.
As a teacher, I enjoyed the early morning time at school before everyone came in, just to have a little quiet time to do what I wanted in the room… tweak lesson plans, grade papers, move furniture around, put up new bulletin boards… or whatever I wanted. But, I also would grade papers til late at night. Turning the mind off was the hardest thing to do… it still is!
As a principal, I went in to school early to accomplish all the things I knew had to be done that day, because I knew there would be so many interruptions. My time was not mine and there were priorities that had to be completed… so early it was!
Now, I am retired. I have had many years of bad sleep habits to change. For all those years, I may have had 3 to 5 hours of sleep a night. The body needs more sleep than that. That’s when fatigue settles in, our bodies slide into survival mode, and illness hovers waiting to find a crack to slip in. And I can tell you, I was ill more than well the entire 34 years I was in education. Not good!!!
Isn’t it strange that we totally settle for what we feel is a norm, when in fact it is a bad habit.
With retirement, I had to “work” on fixing my bad sleeping habits. I learned that when I sleep, I should go to bed… even for a nap.
I’ve also learned:
-
to set a time to go to bed
-
to turn off all electronic devices at least an hour before going to bed
-
to read something for a few minutes
-
work on a puzzle… paper and pencil!
-
to rub Young Living body lotion on my legs and arms (I’m not choosey… I like them all and love the calming sensation they create)
-
use Deep Sleep Essence and/or ImmuPro right before I climb into bed
-
when I wake up in the wee hours of the morning, if I feel I need more sleep, I stay in bad and relax my mind (whether I fall back to sleep isn’t the point… I’m allowing myself the time to sleep and rest)
Since I have been addressing this bad habit of jumping up at the crack of dawn and staying up ’til I can’t keep my eyes opened, I am now getting between 6 and 7 hours of sleep. I feel much more rested, alert, and haven’t had so many colds… in fact, I hardly have any everyday illnesses anymore. Running on totally fatigue is a thing of the past.
Are you like me and have had to change this bad habit of living on little sleep?
What do you do? We want to know!!
