Sleepy Time

I woke up this morning at 6 am, just as the sun was creeping through my blinds that don’t close all the way. And I woke up feeling fantastic—a rarity for a Monday morning. Want to know why I felt so great? Eight solid hours of shut-eye. I clicked off my lamp at 10pm last night, and I don’t think I moved a muscle until I felt a small pool of light gather on my duvet exactly eight hours later.

It’s no mistake that I spent so much time between my sheets last night.

Yesterday evening, I took Remy for a long walk and started thinking about all of the things—big and small—that help keep me balanced, as well as where I could make a few tweaks to feel even more in tune.

So I asked myself, “when do I feel crappiest?” Without skipping a beat, I answered, “when I’m exhausted.” And it is so true. When I feel tired, I find it almost impossible to keep anything else in check. I get stressed out, ticked off, and have the attention span of a gnat when my eyelids are weighty. It becomes difficult to motivate myself to do anything active and eating well takes a backseat to just about everything else. Namely, sugar and caffeine.

Luckily, I don’t feel this way very often. But I’ll admit, I have felt more tired than usual lately and I know it’s because I’ve been a little lenient with my bedtime. I know that eight hours is my magic number, but these past few weeks I’ve been getting around six or seven--and for no good reason.

For me, eight hours of sleep means that I wake up feeling as stellar as I did this a.m.—energized, happy, and productive. On the other hand, while I believe that you can never have too much of a good thing, sleep is one big exception. Any more than eight hours and I usually wake up feeling like my brain is filled with sand.

The thing is, getting to bed at a decent hour takes a pretty hefty dose of discipline. You basically have to stop yourself from doing whatever you’re doing. And, if you’ve spent the majority of your day doing things you don’t want to do (work, for some), then this is no easy task. I’ve also learned that if I don’t muster up this discipline shortly after I start feeling drowsy, the sleepiness passes and I don’t feel so tired anymore. But I know that I’ll pay for it when my alarm goes off the next morning.

Sleep is such a curious little thing, though. For some of us, it comes really easily. And for others, trying to get to sleep or stay asleep is more like a nightmare. It’s such an important topic, in fact, that I’ve written a handful of articles on sleep. (My latest were in Women's Health magazine and O the Oprah magazine.)

A large part of your ability to sleep happens to be genetic. (I definitely have my mom’s DNA to thank for my champion snoozing skills.) And while some people claim that they can get by on four or five hours per night, the reality is that very few can. (Just ask those folks how much coffee they chug to stay alert.) We can all eek by on a sleepless night here and there, but we become a walking hazard when we attempt to do that consistently.

So, last night, sometime after nearly burning the apartment down due to a major cooking faux pas, I vowed to become a little more vigilant about getting to sleep on time. And not letting the pan get too hot. I can safely say that getting into bed a little earlier was well worth missing Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami.

I can’t believe I just admitted I watch that.

Anyway.

If sleep wasn’t the first thing on your To Do list this weekend (not everyone’s an old lady like me), I came across a study today that you may want to consider for next weekend. The report found that taking one weekend morning to sleep in can help you catch up on Zzz’s from the previous week and boost alertness and attention span. In other words: Move your brunch date to 1 pm. Your friends will thank you.