Sleeping our way to the top ~

It seems that sleep is a rare commodity for many ~ most of us are sleep deprived, myself included. Though I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, I don’t stay asleep for long. I wake several times a night. The reasons are always different, whether it is the train that goes by at all hours during the night and early morning, or the fights I have with the covers on my bed, or the one too many cups of tea that I have in the evening, it doesn’t matter the cause, the symptom is always the same. Not enough sleep.

 

Now, for some strange reason, for many of us in this society, we don’t like to admit to sleeping. We boast about our sleepless nights and how little sleep we need to survive on. Or the fact that we were up at 4:00 am working on our latest blog, or having closed the deal with clients on the east coast before most of us here in the west have even had our first cup of coffee. We wear this lack of sleep like a badge of honor. Like we are some kind of superhero.

It's as if we fear that by admitting to, or actually sleeping an 8 hour night, we might appear weak or unproductive. You know, the phone rings, it wakes you.  You answer with an obviously sleepy Brenda Vaccaro kind of  “Hello?” The person on the other end, “Oh I’m sorry, did I wake you?” And for some reason, even if we are in a dead sleep, we say “Oh no, I’m awake, I’ve been up for a while.” It’s like there is something embarrassing about being asleep.  We don’t want anyone to think that we either went to bed too early or that we are sleeping in too late.  A dead giveaway of a slacker, and heaven forbid we don’t want anyone to think of us as a slacker.

Why do we confuse and sometimes associate sleep with laziness?  I know highly successful people who take daily naps, power naps, as they are sometimes called.  There are cultures that take an entire 3 hour “lunch” break during the work week to catch up on perhaps, a nap or quick snooze.  It seems that if we want to be successful in whatever we do in life, we need to get our share of sleep. Sleep is what keeps us focused, fit and fueled.

There are so many health benefits to getting adequate sleep. It is when we sleep that our bodies heal and repair themselves. Sleep can help to keep our heart healthy, reduce stress, improve our memory and help to control our body weight.  So now that we know that, why don't we all just try to get a little more sleep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nncY-MA1Iu8

It's really not a lot to ask for, is it?

If a genie appeared before me right now, on this early June morning, 5:00 am, and granted me three wishes, I believe I would ask for things I've already had, but have since lost.  I don't have any dreams of grandeur that need to be filled, my wishes are much simpler, but just as difficult to fill.

For starters, I would ask for my 20/20 vision back and that I keep it for the rest of my life. This is definitely the thing I miss most from my youth, and would pay handsomely to have it back. Not by laser surgery or in the form of some stylish glasses, but really have it back, naturally.

The second thing I would ask for is to get a good night's sleep, consistently. This one I probably gave up right around the age of 29.  Having a child keeps you up a good portion of the night, and this starts while they are still in the womb and doesn't end until they move out.  And even then, there are many nights that you lie awake, thinking about them, hoping they are okay. The mind seems to get more active the older you get while the body takes a back seat, a little too stiff and sore to keep up.  It's hard to turn the mind off and for some reason it really likes to kick into full gear around 3 or 4 am. I've tried many different relaxation techniques, meditation, not drinking any liquids at night, reading books and all the other tips found in every newspaper article and women's magazine, and still, no success.

And my last wish would be to have my family back, all intact, all in the same town, all together again. To share more than just holidays, but our everyday lives. This one I haven't had since around the age of 20, so it has been a long time coming.

If that old saying, "be careful what you wish for" has any validity, and if miracles really do happen, well then, you never know.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed and restlessly waiting for my Genie to appear.

Pillow Fight

Most good pillow fights involve two or more people and at least a couple of pillows. For me, no such luck. My pillow fight consists of just me and my pillow. And this fight can go on all hours of the night. Actually it usually involves two pillows. I fight with one, punch it, twist it, turn it, slam it and finally throw it across the bed and start all over with the other pillow.

The pillow. Such an important part of our lives. We spend so much time with it and like a spouse, if things aren't working out, if we are waking up each day grumpy, with a headache, and suffering through our day due to a lack of sleep, we should probably consider trading it in. But the quest for the perfect pillow is so difficult. I have bought down pillows, foam pillows, the tempurpedic pillow, pillows for back sleepers, pillows for side sleepers, tried stacking pillows, and it makes me regret the day I threw out the one pillow I had been content with for so long. And the main reason I got rid of it? Because it was old. It was still completely comfortable, but it was old. And I had just unfortunately read an article about bed mites. In the article it said; Beds are a prime habitat. A typical used mattress may have anywhere from 100,000 to 10 million mites inside. (Ten percent of the weight of a two year old pillow can be composed of dead mites and their droppings.) Eww. So I knew there had to be many sharing the bed with me. This creeped the living bejesus out of me. So just like that, out she goes, and I'm off to purchase a new, bug free pillow where I could rest my head each night without worrying about little creepy things crawling into my ears. I haven't been able to find an adequate replacement for that perfect pillow yet.

Once you are a bit older, and sleep is a little harder to come by, the pillow becomes our new security blanket. When you are little you take your blanket or your stuffed bear with you, now everyone I know brings along their pillow to any type of sleepover, whether it be to a hotel, or the home of a friend or family member. Sometimes we bring them in the car just for a long drive, sometimes, even on a plane, if we can fit them in our carry on. They play an extremely important role in determining how our day will start out. Even if we are sleeping on a terrible mattress it can make it somewhat bearable if the pillow is a good one. My mother always brings along her pillow, as ratty a thing as it is, my sister, same thing, each time I see their pillows I ask them "Is that your pillow?" But I get it. They are that important to us, that hard to find. And once you find something that helps get you through the night, it is foolish, almost reckless, to get rid of it. This of course excludes things like substance abuse, sex with strangers or strange people in general, or watching episodes of Jersey Shore or other disgusting "reality" shows into the wee hours of the morning.

So today I am off to find a new pillow. I know the task at hand will not be an easy one but I am determined to find, if not the perfect pillow, one that comes close, one that I can live with easily. And after it has aged a bit, been through many washings, I will not just throw it out. In a perfect world, there would be no bed mites, (or for that matter any bugs, disease, bad hair days, death, destruction, bitter coffee, lumpy mattresses, etc.) but I mean really, those little mites are microscopic, how bad can it really be? Some people share their bed with the entire family, some with their pets, these are little tiny mites. So this time, when I find the perfect pillow and can once again get a restful sleep, I'm just gonna make room for all of us.