Today I am curious about…Why I constantly feel so tired?
I am one of those girlies who LOVES their sleep! It is very important for my mental and physical health to get in my 40 winks.
If I don’t get the sleep I need, I am a MISERABLE human to be around.
I have still not, at the age of 26, figured out a better sleep routine for myself because to be honest I am not quite sure where I fall on the sleep spectrum of things… am I an Early Bird or am I a Night Owl? I can 100% say I hate waking up early but I also hate going to bed early because I feel like I can achieve so many things by still being awake after 8PM.
During the week my days are quite normal where I can be in bed by 9PM, unless I have Action Netball which then I am only in bed by 11PM (the games are late, but it is so much fun to play so I just suck it up). Most of the time it's the TV or my phone stopping me from getting into bed.
Then comes the weekend… Friday and Saturdays I am almost never home before 2AM because I am either working at a Night Club (my guilty pleasure of a side job) or I am just partying at the said Night Club (this girl sure does love and live for a good night out!)
I know what you are thinking… Why don’t you rather just stay at home on the nights you are not working at the club? Well in all honesty, I do force myself on many a weekend to stay home, just take it easy, watch a movie and catch up on some housework… but then comes 10PM and I have repacked all the cupboards I can think of, watched 3 movies, devoured all my snacks and I am STILL NOT TIRED! So I am still awake, I have nothing to do and then I have a bright idea to put on my dancing clothes and then off I go to the club again.
We, bar ladies at the club, have a theory, it’s because we have all worked there for so many years that our bodies have the time frame of working from 8PM – 2AM engrained in our DNA and that’s why we can’t go to sleep early over the weekends.
But I have to say, even with a night or two of late nights, I do sleep enough (I think) throughout the week and that is what confuses me as to why I still feel so completely tired all the time no matter how many hours of sleep I get in.
I hate talking about my sleep issues because I feel like people are always ready, guns blazing to judge. Like how can I complain about my sleep if I don’t have children waking me up at 4.30AM every morning? Or how can I complain if I don’t need to wake up at 5AM to be ready to leave for work at 6AM so I don’t get caught in rush hour traffic? "You can sleep in over the weekends until who knows what time… don’t get me started on how my mornings look every day!"
OH HOW I'VE HEARD IT ALL!
Like, YES! I 100% understand that I have the luxury of sleeping a little later than others, because my day job allows me to work from home or only be at the office at 9AM and I don't have children waking me up at the crack of dawn. But I don’t want to be waking up at 8AM in the mornings or only or at 11AM over the weekends… I also have things I would like to do before I start my day, like get a workout in, do some journaling or even just have my coffee without feeling rushed.
So let me go through what I am currently experiencing when it comes to my sleep…
Struggle to fall asleep – which means I tend to only fall asleep after 11PM if not later. I have also resulted in needing to wear earplugs and an eye mask at night because any noise or light really makes the falling asleep process even worse
Struggle to wake up – I sleep through multiple alarms every morning which is very frustrating for me… It feels like I am failing my day already because of that
I am tired when I wake up – even though I have slept for 8 hours or more sometimes, I still wake up exhausted, as if I only slept for 3 hours
I find myself needing to take a nap - like after 2PM everyday because I just physically can’t keep my eyes open any more
The brain fog I have some days is just UNREAL - My brain could just as well be in another room half the time… it seems like she needs to be rebooted every 5 minutes
I feel like a failure most mornings from the moment I open my eyes because I have now missed my alarms, overslept yet again and now my whole day is going to feel like catch up because I didn’t get to the things I wanted to in the morning.
There is absolutely nobody putting pressure on me to be waking up at a certain hour of the morning, but I just feel like I can get more out of my day if I do wake up at a reasonable hour… not like at the crack of dawn or anything because I am definitely not THAT crazy!
So, after a quick Google Search on how to tackle my sleep issues, I have come up with a strategy for this week.
Here are a few simple changes to my day that is said help me with my sleep routine:
1. Eat balanced meals with as little as possible processed foods
2. No caffeine after 1PM
3. Get in my daily movement
4. Read a book before bed… no Instagram or Facebook scrolling
5. Get into bed by 9.30PM latest
6. Set my alarm for 6AM on the other side of the bedroom… forcing me to stand up and put the alarm off
7. NO climbing back into the bed! Go splash some water on your face girl and go make your damn coffee!
There is more research to be done for me to understand how, what and why I am not getting the rest I need every night, but I will start with these few adjustments first to see if it will make a difference before I start with the drastic changes and plans of actions, forcing myself to be in bed by 8PM (come hell or high water… and in all honestly I am just not ready for that because it sounds just a bit too serious for me)
I will be tracking my progress starting from 7 May 2024 to see what worked, what didn’t and how I can adjust certain aspects of my day to ensure that this sleepy girl gets that good night’s rest she deserves.
Lots of love
xxx
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