The importance of sleep

The importance of sleep is constantly mentioned everywhere. Yet many people end up getting too little sleep, myself often included. I've seen how much better I get when I sleep properly with a consistent schedule but still I often get too little sleep.

Normally I'm not able to get 8 hours of sleep on many nights per week, usually, it ends up between 7 or 7 and a half hours, sometimes even less. I know this is not enough for me in the long run. Sleep has been one of the first things I give up when I feel the need to push myself to the limit at work. I need to stop doing that because I often get a headache if I don't sleep enough or well enough. It's usually not a migraine but the headache still gets so bad that sometimes it's hard to function, especially after working all day.

Then there's the fact that I'm a light sleeper, I wake up easily. If my fiancé has a rough night, most likely so will I. Thankfully our cats tend to sleep at night and not run around the apartment. Osiris likes to sleep between my legs and Lumia between our pillows. If I have a rough night, so will they. I'm so used to them sleeping next to me that if some night they sleep elsewhere, I have trouble falling asleep. Both cats sometimes like to sleep under the covers, Lumia will wake me up to let her in, Osiris will poke his way in himself. He does usually also wake me up too, though, because I can feel his cold nose moving around while he's trying to wiggle his way under the covers.

I notice hitting the snooze button more often if I'm constantly getting too little sleep. I can easily snooze for 30 minutes or more even though I know that is bad.

My brain likes to make falling asleep hard

If I know that I will be thrown into a situation I really can't prepare for, I usually sleep poorly the night before because my brain likes to go through all kinds of scenarios. And then there are the situations where something unpleasant happens during a day and I feel like I should have said something (either just said something in general or said something different; I think you know what I mean), my brain picks up at night again and start creating its scenarios. It makes letting things go more difficult, and it makes my next day feel worse.

I've tried pretty much everything to get rid of this but I suppose my brain is just wired that way. I've always had a good imagination, even as a child. Therefore I always want to prepare for new situations as well as I can, because I don't want to lose sleep because of them.

Finally getting enough sleep after a long period of time

I slept around 8-10 hours a night for the first couple of weeks at the start of my 5-week summer holiday. And my sleep rhythm didn't shift at all. Usually, my sleep rhythm is shifting almost immediately. So I suppose there was quite a lot of tiredness in my body. After 3 weeks I felt my sleep rhythm starting to shift.

Thankfully I now have a bed I can sleep 8 hours on without my back killing me. In my previous bed my back could start hurting after 6 hours of sleep, and that, of course, makes getting enough sleep much harder.

After going through what I did this spring, proper sleep is something that I will need to prioritise. Especially since I've noticed how much better I feel after a well-rested night. I also want to keep reducing my migraine triggers and just be more healthy. So in the upcoming months, I'll be snooze and sleep schedule training.