A Good Night’s Sleep

 I honestly can’t remember the last time I had a good night’s sleep. 

We have a two year old boy who still gets up at least once in the night- even on the all too rare occasions when he has slept through the night- he’s up at 5am. I’m not moaning- it’s just a fact. 

To be honest, baby induced lack of sleep aside, I’ve never been someone who can fall asleep at 9am and sleep for a solid eight hours. 

Instead, I actively avoid it at all costs. There’s always something ‘I need to find out’ or something ‘I should be doing’. 

As a consequence, some nights I have been still awake at 3am scouring the internet for the answers to life’s questions- when really all I’m doing is adding another wrinkle to the collection already residing beneath my eyes. 

Why am I like this? Why do I actively avoid sleep? I think it comes from my absolute hatred of being sent to bed by my mum at a time that was in my opinion far too early. I remember staring at the ceiling in my bedroom dreaming of the fun I’d have ‘when I was a grown up’… hmmm. If you count fun as staring at your phone for hours on end then mission accomplished. 

Sleep, I’ve found out, is actually vital. I see it as a body reset and a time for your brain to catch up on its admin. This is true, but it can prevent heart attacks, prevent weight gain, boost your memory, boost your mood, improve your exercise performance (I know for a fact that marathon runners sleep up to 16 hours per day) and frankly not getting enough sleep is dangerous. You are more likely to die in a car crash if you haven’t had enough sleep. That’s me told. 

So why oh why, even with these things in mind, do I constantly avoid it. Maybe I think the idea of lying down and going to sleep is simply boring, or I associate ‘an early night’ as punishment. Either way, I don’t get enough sleep. 

This isn’t to say I’m walking around in the day like a member of the undead… I’m actually fresh as a daisy most of the time. However, I am starting to change my thinking. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, maybe I’ve finally accepted that it’s something I should do and to stop fighting it. Maybe I’m trying to be healthier. 

Sadly, with a little baby, the only time you get to yourself is after he’s in bed, so obviously that would involve going to bed at a decent time. 

Whatever the reason, I am going to give it a go and simply see how it goes. How long will I last before I’m scrolling on my phone…