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Sleep! Oh beautiful sleep! How you do elude me. But not for long! I know that, when I put my mind (and my body) to it, I will find more of you. And soon. Here are the things that I have come across in my research, some of which I am going to try to put into practice in order to get that elusive “enough sleep”. Some are environmental, some are physical, and some have more to do with your state of mind. You may have to do some editing, changing, or otherwise bending your thoughts in order to get the sleep you want.

Some environmental things that you can do to get more sleep include:

• Make sure that your room is completely dark. That means no digital alarm clock lights, computer screens or televisions glowing, or lights coming in from outside.
• Along the same lines, make sure that there isn’t excessive noise. Use earplugs or white noise if you have to.
• Do not watch TV right before bed. Many news and other programs have themes of violence or negativity that may be disturbing to sleep.
• Keep your bedroom somewhat cool.
• Don’t use your bed for anything other than sleeping or sex.

Some of the physical things that you can do to promote better sleep habits include:

• Get regular exercise preferably in the morning or early afternoon as exercise late in the day may interfere with sleep
• Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
• Avoid caffeine after 3pm as it can have effects up to 12 hours later.
• Avoid alcohol. Although it can cause drowsiness, it often causes an individual to wake up a couple of hours later and have trouble falling back to sleep.
• Turn the TV or computer off at least an hour before bed time in order to wind down and be ready for sleep.
• Do not eat within two hours of bed time, especially carbohydrates or sugar. In other words, no late night snacking. Not an easy one for me…
• Make sleep a priority. Schedule sleep time just like you would schedule time for anything else. It is important.
• Avoid napping. Okay, not sure I can get behind this one since, some days me not napping would not be a good thing for anybody. But it’s out there as a tip and I can see the merit. If you can make it to bed time without a nap, you’ll probably be able to sleep better.

If you’re having trouble with sleep, give a few of these suggestions that I found a try and see what happens! I personally have been trying the not napping and cutting down on caffeine (it’s been a hard couple of days) and, just today, it has caught up to me. I was able to sleep 8 hours. Interrupted sleep but still 8 hours of it. I can’t complain. Give it a try! What do you have to lose? Not sleep, that’s for sure.

As my morning is unfolding with all of the things that need to be done and a few that “want” to be done, three words stood out to me particularly for today given how I am feeling. The words are: deliberate, patient, persistent. These words are particularly important for me today because I am feeling the exact opposite of all three. I am feeling scattered with too many things to do. Impatient with restrictions and limitations to getting them all done. Like there is no straight line to follow, only a winding path that may or may not get me where I want to go.

Today I need to live deliberately. Make a plan that takes into account my priorities instead of doing what I *feel* like doing at any given time. That is sometimes hard for me. I like having flexibility and being able to choose what I do based on how I feel. And some of the time that method works. But today flexibility would get me to the end of the day more irritable than I started it.

Patience is important for me today for many reasons but the most important one is that I am a stay at home mother who is starting out with a personal “patience deficit” anyway. I know that my lack of patience can shape my child in ways that I do not want it to so it is a constant work-in-progress. I also know that, no matter how much I plan, things never go completely according to plan. So I will need to be patient when my plan hits a glitch.

Persistence for me today means that even if the plan goes to pot or I get off track, I take a deep breath and jump in where I can. That I don’t say “Oh, it’s too late to get any exercise today” or “I’ll do (x,y,z) tomorrow” and head for the snack foods. That I am not judgmental of myself for not completing everything on my often-unrealistic to-do list. But instead that I persist in doing as much as I can get done and feel good about it at the end of the day.

On that note, I am off to make a plan. One that includes play time with Petunia, “play time” (sewing) for me, and a generous sprinkling of “have to’s”. Have a great day!

Okay, so I kinda fell down on the job (notice I did NOT fall asleep on the job) last month in terms of getting more sleep and helping you all do the same. I’m going to play catch up for a few days before launching the next topic of self-care for 2010: exercise. Because without sleep, it is infinitely harder to exercise. So, stay tuned tomorrow for some tips on how to build better sleep habits.