I slept 11 1/2 hours last night. I would punctuate that with an exclamation point if I were still not still stunned. Was I really that tired? Am I more than tired? Exhausted? Shouldn’t I, wouldn’t I, know that? I had a pretty easy week. Busy yes; but easy. On Friday I had little to do and all day to do it and I was surprised with the opportunity to leave at noon for a surprise half day with pedicure. My adrenaline up and my systems down, I task pushed uphill for 3 hours….and then I relaxed. Heated aromatherapy neck pillow draped over me, massage chair rolling across my back, a leg massage, manicure and pedicure and just over an hour with my phone out of sight and my eyes mostly closed. Ahhhhh….
Afterward, I ran a couple errands ahead of the weekend. I had a wonderful dinner. I sat in my near infrared sauna for 20 minutes and cozied up with my DVR for some entertainment. And wondering how far past my bedtime I had stayed up, discovered it was 7:10 pm. Whoa. I thought to push to stay up thinking if I went to be too early I’d wake up too early (I generally love early mornings but just wasn’t looking for one) but my eyes… gravity pulled them closed and I threw out the white flag at 7:30. I had nobody to prove anything to by staying up so I got all tucked in and am certain I was asleep at 7:45 due to the relaxation mediation I do each night to keep my legs from twitching. And I awoke to sunlight through my blinds. It was 7:15… A.M.!
I do all the things you are supposed to do to encourage sleep. I stay hydrated. I avoid caffeine. I eat clean and healthy and my dinners are not overindulgent (big meals = lots to digest and that can interrupt quality sleep). I am even back to some physical movement. Far from bragging I am enjoying one 30 minute hot yoga session each week. But what I think has happened is due to a domino effect.
My dedication to heal my body by activating the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) is kicking in. These past few months I’ve begun to sleep after months of deprivation. I thought the sleep I was experiencing was “normal” and “healthy”. Guess not. I do admit that I wondered how I was able to function on 7-8 hours when in best health I had alway needed 9. But I thought maybe it was age. Was that the reason for the foggy brain too? Or was that lack of sleep? Could be either- or both. When does sleep begin to shift? And does it always shift? I don’t have those answers. It’s something I’ll be reading up on. And I’ll likely share discovered wisdom. I’m curious to know how I could be so tired and so ignorant of it even with my focus on rest. But my body is speaking….. it wants more sleep. So what I”m dong first is listening. ZZZZZZZZZZZ
Inner Calm 