Don’t get me wrong… I like Christmas, but since its just one day a year, I think that sleep definitely wins out! I’ve gone through seasons of ridiculous insomnia, I’ve had periods where I sleep like a baby, but more often than not I wake up craving more sleep! Heck I already want to take a nap tomorrow! So here’s why I think sleep is better than Christmas morning…
1. When I’m sleeping… I’m not eating.
I’m a snacker. I’ll admit it… And the later it gets the more likely I am to be found munching on something. NOT GOOD. When I’m tired, I don’t want to cook… so I go for the easy choice… like chocolate or chips or I start snacking. I know from personal experience that making healthy food choices, one of the things that I’m trying to focus on this year, is much easier when I’ve had a full & restful nights sleep.
2. When I’m sleeping… I’m not stressed.
Lets face it… I get stressed easily. Between Hubs being on the road all the time, family stuff, running my handmade shop and taking care of this blog, there are days where its all just a little bit too much! I’m pretty sure that when I’m sleeping, I’m having happy dreams, at least that’s what I choose to believe. A solid nights sleep does amazing things for reducing my stress levels… toss in a nap or two, and I’m practically stress free!
3. When I’m sleeping… my brain likes to get creative… and productive!
I can not tell you how many times I’ve woken up with a BRILLIANT idea, or the perfect inspiration for a new project for the shop. There’s even been a few times I’ve woken up with an entire blog post already composed in my head 🙂 I’m much more likely to bust out 2 or 3 blog posts in a single afternoon when I’ve had a good nights sleep.
See! Sleep really is better than Christmas morning 🙂
I’ve been trying to improve my quality of sleep and have found a few things that have helped!
– Sleeping in a cool room (around 65 degrees) and snuggling under a couple blankets.
– Keeping my bedroom as dark as possible.
– Setting my phone on silent and placing it face down so that I don’t see when a notification lights it up.
– Snuggling with the #MonsterKittens for a few minutes to wind down before I turn off my bedside lamp.
– Writing the next day’s to do list. (this one really seems to help when I’m stressed/swamped)
What do you do to try and get a better nights sleep?
I like dark, cool rooms with some sort of sound. Usually the fan is enough. I'm not very good about it, but I do try to put the phone down and read before I go to sleep instead of staring at the screen.
I just started bartending the night shift (UGH), and my b/f hung blackout curtains so I'd be able to sleep past sunrise. I am amazed at how much a total lack of light allows me to sleep! I never thought I was that affected by it, but now that he hung those up, I consistently konk out for 9 hours.
My only other trick is to read for 30-60 minutes before bed, to relax my eyes. The strain of staring at screen (computer, or TV) keeps my brain going, but after months of training myself that reading in bed is a precursor to sleep, I can feel my body start to tired out after a few minutes of reading in bed. It's a good wind-down to sleep.