8/16/2023 0 Comments Sleepless near meI may not be getting exercise, and it's freezing, but I'm hoping that spending time outdoors will do me some good: People who get more natural light exposure in the early morning sleep about 46 minutes longer per night than those who don't, according to a 2014 study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. I make myself get up and bring the dogs outside for a half hour of playtime. All these bits of fragmented sleep are leaving me groggy and fuzzy-headed. I'm up, but I feel like I've just gone through a battle. I roll over and fall back asleep for a blissful 45 minutes. I'm woken up by a small child crawling into bed with me (too tired to open my eyes to figure out which one), telling me he had a bad dream. (I'm not the only one this happens to: A study published last November in the medical journal PLOS linked smartphone use before bed to poorer sleep quality.) It takes a full hour for me to fall back asleep. My mind starts racing a million miles an hour. Within minutes I've fallen down the rabbit hole and am immersed in a slew of news articles. I sneak a peek at my phone, and then, somehow, I find myself scrolling through my Facebook feed. I'm not sure what woke me, but suddenly I'm wide awake. I resist the urge to turn on CNN, which I know will just agitate me, and instead hop into the shower and then crawl into bed with a book. By the time I finish it's 9:30, and even though I feel wiped, I'm still wired. I quickly go into uber-mom mode, packing snacks, cleaning up the kitchen, throwing in loads of laundry, paying bills. (But you should know that chocolate can actually be good for you - science says so.)Įveryone's in bed and the dogs have been fed and taken outside to do their business. As I savor each sip of my French Vanilla coffee, I tell myself it's worth tossing and turning a bit tonight. I know, I know, I know, I should stay away from the Keurig, but it's either that or a giant bag of Hershey's Kisses. I need an IV infusion of caffeine to power me through unpacking backpacks, sorting through school notices, supervising homework and outdoor playtime, and whipping up some sort of gourmet concoction for dinner that my brood will actually eat (dream on!). The kids are home from school, and I'm exhausted. MORE: 8 Things Your Sleep Habits Say About You Between my morning workout and multiple cups of java, I'll somehow power through my day. Then it's off to cranking out a few articles while my small children are in school. So I slip on my sneakers and go for a three-mile run: I know that exercise, particularly in the AM, can help combat insomnia. I know that if I nap, even for a short while, I may pay for it by not being able to sleep tonight. ![]() It's going to be a six-cups-of- coffee kind of day.Īll three kids are dressed, fed, and on the school bus, and although I'm exhausted, I grimly pour myself another cup of coffee instead of heading back to bed. I stumble over to my Keurig, fill it up with water, and silently press the power button. There's no chance I can slip back into bed for more shut-eye: Wiggins is in full-on play mode. I stagger out of bed, find my glasses, and take both dogs out to pee and eat their breakfast. Wiggins starts whining too, and a whole cacophony of barks and whimpers ensue. "No!" I say sharply, but she's insistent, batting at me with her paw. I open my eyes to see Ivry staring at me. I feel a cold, wet nose against my hand and warm, smelly dog breath in my face. (Follow these 6 easy steps to become the type of person who can fall asleep in minutes.) It works: Within about 20 minutes, I start to feel tired, so I go upstairs and fall asleep within minutes. So I get up and go downstairs to read the latest copy of Us Weekly in dim light. I fight back the urge to grab my phone and start scrolling through Facebook posts, as I know the blue light it emits can impact sleep. ![]() I don't like to rely on artificial ways to force myself to sleep, and besides, research has shown women appear to be more susceptible to its effects, which is why the FDA recently recommended we halve the dose. Normally around this time I'd take a sleeping pill like zolpidem (Ambien) to get myself to doze off, but lately I've been resisting. And this happens to me frequently, most nights of the week. ![]() I seem to be struck with insomnia, a sleep disturbance that chronically plagues about 10% of the population, according to the CDC. (Learn how you can fix almost any health ailment with food in Prevention's Eat for Extraordinary Health & Healing. There's the snoring of Ivry, my 10-year-old black lab who's right next to me, the soft whimpers of Wiggins, the family's new 3-month-old yellow Labrador puppy as he slumbers in his crate, and the various snorts and grunts of my three small children (ages 9, 7, and 5) as they sleep in their bedrooms across the hall. ![]() I'm lying in my bed, listening to the sounds of everyone else in my house sleeping.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |