Have you slept enough recently?
Let’s not underestimate the importance of sleep.
Sleep allows our minds and our bodies to rest. It allows time for cell repair and regeneration, gives our immune system a boost and lets our subconscious work through all those thoughts that were mixing themselves up in our busy brains. Sleep can bring clarity, relief, energy and peace to the mind.
I’m not advocating sleeping all day and all night – of course that would be an unhealthy way to live. 7 or 8 hours a day seems to be the optimum amount, with children and teenagers requiring more. This makes sense as young people also have a huge amount of growth and development going on.
It's been my own poor sleeping habits this week that have prompted me to write these thoughts. I love writing. I love learning. I love using my writing to enable others to learn. I love meeting new people and helping them find solutions to problems: I love my work. However, I’ve found myself getting carried away with work recently, checking messages, writing notes, working on projects for my clients late into the evening, long after I’ve put my children to bed.
A time that I should be saving for myself to chat with my husband, read a book, sit and stroke my dog, consider my day, has started to be dominated by screen time. And, not surprisingly, this has had a detrimental impact on my sleep.
Looking at a screen, thinking about work, these are not ways to relax the mind before we go to bed for the night. I did a little better last night: I only worked until 10pm then read fiction until 11pm which allowed sleep to come more easily.
Tonight, my lovely husband has arranged a date night at home — we are going with the idea that staying in is the new going out (especially when you have young children and no babysitter!) — and I am not going to work at all. I don’t have a deadline on Monday and I’m ahead of schedule with my work for clients; perhaps tomorrow I will not even open my laptop. I’m typing very slowly now, wondering if I will manage this, as though even my own fingers don’t believe me…
If you've got your routine sorted, and you're getting the amount of quality sleep you need, that's brilliant. If you find old habits creeping back in as technology pushes screen time into eating up more of your own time than you want it to, you're in good company; lots of us need to keep ourselves in check, to allow our minds to rest in preparation for our heads to hit the pillow. Sleep is wonderful... let's all make sure we get enough!