The power of sleep
Sleep is one of the most underrated activities that each one of us does every day. When you sleep, your body and your brain rejuvenates itself and the average person needs between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night. If you don’t get enough sleep, you don’t give your body or your mind enough time to fully recover and you build up a “sleep debt”. So I encourage you to become mindful about the importance of sleep, to make an effort to understand your sleeping patterns and make the necessary adjustments to get to your optimal sleep schedule. And as a result you will have more energy, think clearer, handle your emotions more intelligently, and just be more productive in general. Basically, you will be a better you :-)
My normal, healthy sleep pattern consisted of 7 hours a night, but often I jumped out of bed much sooner because I felt under stress to do more, exercise more, do more household chores, …. And frankly, I rated sleeping as boring. Now, due to the continuing Cancer Fatigue, I sleep between 10 and sometimes even 13 hours a night. My body simply requests it and I have stopped fighting it. I know that I am setting myself up for a weak, less fulfilling day if I am not granting my body the sleep that it requests. I also have to frame my condition repeatedly for others, to make them understand that I am not lazy or uninterested but that I have to manage my energies very carefully, chose selectively what I do and – more importantly – not do.
Many healthy people now tell me that they are so over-worked, so tired and that they do not get enough sleep.
Ask yourself: what holds you back to sleep longer? What do you need to stop or do differently to get to a longer, deeper night sleep? For example, although I love waking up with the sun shining, I realized that the morning sunshine always triggered myself to get active and out of bed. So I started to cover my eyes with an eye cushion, filled with aromatic Alpine herbs and flowers. It’s perfect to blend out the sunshine and at the same time it’s a scented treat for my nose, bringing up holiday memories of relaxation.
For more inspiration with regards to sleep, I recommend to check out Arianna Huffington who claims that we are in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis with profound consequences on our health, our job performance, our relationships and our happiness. What is needed, she boldly asserts, is nothing short of a sleep revolution. Only by renewing our relationship with sleep can we take back control of our lives. ==> http://www.amazon.com/The-Sleep-Revolution-Transforming-Night/dp/1101904003
