Jul 31, 2014

Sleep Rituals

Let us talk about sleep. The often-times elusive thing that allows us to recharge our batteries. It is such a precious gift that I will long for it during difficult pain days. Which is exactly why I can't believe I have a hard time sleeping!  It may start out great, I will be active all day, trying to wear myself out. Sometimes that works, sometimes it backfires on me in a horrid way and I wind up tossing and turning all night. The next day, my crankiness is the awful  repercussion of the night before. My poor Mr. has to deal with Jessy the monster.

Different studies show reasons why you can't sleep... most of which don't apply to me. Some folks say you have to  fung shui your bedrooms, so I research that. From what I gather, it's not something Christians should be doing- so that's out the window.

Some say an active mind can't really shut off, that you just focus on something boring or repetitive and try to shut out the one million and one other thoughts bouncing around in there like a pin ball machine. So I try to recite the Our Father prayer over & over. Some nights it works, some nights it doesn't.



And if it's a new place, or new room, or even new arrangement of my own bedroom... I can forget getting a good nights sleep! It's so frustrating! On top of that, trust me when I say this, if I don't get at least 8 good hours of sleep, I am your worst nightmare. Seriously, it's a proven fact. I can "function" on 7 without anyone getting hurt, but if it's less than that, watch your back!

Well, maybe it's not that serious, but close! I just feel like death warmed over. I don't understand how the Mr. can go on 5 hours of sleep and not miss a beat. I suppose it's the Army training, but my body rejects any and everything having to do with any and everything for the entire day.  I can't even take naps during the day because I know it will mess my sleep schedule up!

This is my sleep ritual, and what I have to do is get all work done by at least 7 pm- dinner dishes done, everything placed just so and finished. I then watch a little TV, try to relax, take my shower, and just basically try to tune everything out and do mind-numbing things until I feel sleepy enough to go get in the bed. Then it's a little more TV or reading, and I start saying my prayers. If I'm lucky, I'll fall asleep in an hour or so with my Lavender eye pillow next to me, my Rain on the Roof sound app playing from my phone, Ginny tucked under my arm and hogging the bed.... Oh! and my breathe right strip since I am allergic to said Ginny and my nose stops up causing me to snore all night and then wake myself up!

I'm telling ya, it's a process!!!

What do you do when you can't sleep? Is it hard to sleep in new places like it is for me? No, seriously, I want to know!

4 comments:

  1. I have yet to find anything that works for me. I am in bed every night by 8:30 or 9pm. It can take me up to 3 hours to fall asleep sometimes - and I never sleep through the night. I'll wake up a couple hours later and not be able to fall back asleep. It's terrible.

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  2. I am trying to figure out this whole sleep thing. You'd think that over summer vacation I would be super rested, but no. I'm trying to figure out what is going on before school starts and I become super sleep deprived. I like how you have a plan for sleep and I think I want to do that too. Thanks for the ideas!
    ~Amanda from His and Her Hobbies

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  3. Some nights I really struggle and I think distracting myself will work, and sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't. Reading is my biggest and best thing though. A book in bed, my eyes get so tired from reading, book down and bam - light reading though haha!

    My husband has this theory though that people surround their bedroom with too much stuff. That the bedroom should be the one place where there is no distractions - you are there for sleep and thats it. So leave the ipads, iphones, books, tv's etc all out of the room and make it the one place where you do nothing but SLEEP. keep everything else out.

    I'm yet to do that haha....but still have interrupted sleep. I should try it one time...but can't have him being right now ;)

    I'm with you on the 8 hours sleep - give me 9 and I'm the best person ever haha!

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