Putting Myself to Bed

I haven’t been sleeping particularly well the last while. Mainly it’s a problem of waking up early and not being able to get back to sleep. I know I struggle with that, but then I’m not sensible enough to actually go to bed at a reasonable time. Add a few of those nights up, and I end up on the sleep deprived side.

This all came to a head yesterday when I woke up at 7am on my day off. I had been hoping to sleep until at least 8:30 or so, just to finally get caught up, but that wasn’t happening. I was still very tired, but just unable to turn my brain off and go back to bed. So I got up and got going.

And I was not in a good mood. I was grouchy about everything, with everyone. I found myself arguing with Denisa over something that I can’t even remember now. Something silly that I didn’t care that much about, but I was treating it like it was something much more important. And suddenly it hit me: I was over tired. If I were a toddler, I’d send me to bed with strict instructions to sleep some more. So I admitted as much to Denisa, apologized, and stopped arguing. Last night, I got in bed at 8:30. Yes, it felt ridiculously early, but I wanted to make sure I could fall asleep as soon as I was tired.

I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night, and I woke up feeling absolutely wonderful. That’s good, since today is the first day of school at the university, and things have been crazy here. But the difference between the two days was stark.

As a parent, it’s often easy to tell when my kids aren’t getting enough sleep. Yesterday was a reminder to me that it isn’t just toddlers who get grumpy and ill-tempered when they’re sleep deprived. It’s just no one can typically tell an adult when they need to go back to bed. For that, we have to recognize it on our own.

So if you’ve been feeling off the last while, might I suggest getting more sleep? Your family and friends will thank you . . .

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