Ok, I get it. I really do. This whole 8 hours of sleep thing, and I can do it. I can sleep for 8 hours. In fact. I can sleep longer if the opportunity arises. The problem - no, no - the challenge is... life. Simply - life.
Eish but you know how life gets in the way of so many things. For example, my natural time for waking up is at 7 if I hit the sack at 22:00 or thereabouts. For my body, that's optimum. That's 9 hours of sleep peeps. 9 hours. Do I get 9 hours of sleep. No sirree. I most certainly do not. Why? Do I hear you asking? Well get comfortable and I'll tell you a story.
Reason 1: I have a job. I am a teacher, and for some absurd reason schools always start really early in the morning. For example, my school starts at 8. To get to school we are obliged to begin our trek to the other side of Cairo by 7. So my alarm goes off at 5.
Reason 2: it takes me a while to transform back into a human after I wake up. I used to be able to roll out of bed and get ready to go in 20 minutes. Not any more. I have discovered that I am a nicer person to know if I take it slow in the morning.
Reason 3: I am less of a monster if I have a cup of tea and some breakfast before I leave for work. I also like to take my time in the shower, getting dressed etc. I am more *there* when I get to work.
Reason 4: I have cats. And they demand attention in the morning - and not just to be fed, they want loves and playtime. So I have had to build an extra 15 minutes into my morning routine for my furbabies. And it's totally worth it.
Reason 5: I have to build in time for Facebook. I am living far away from my children, grandchildren and friends. so I absolutely have to spend 15 minutes or so checking out what they've been up to while I was sleeping. And it's worse at the moment with this challenge - keeping up with all the posts takes a lot of time!
Reason 6: I like to meditate or do my I-Ching for the day before I leave for work so that I feel focussed for the day ahead. This is not a not-negotiable like time with my cats or Facebook, but I do like to do it.
So you see, I have to be up by 5:15 every morning.
If I go to bed earlier than 22:00, I just don't fall asleep until about 22:00. If I go to bed at 22:00, I'm asleep by 22:05. So my default sleep time is 7 hours or so. And I function well on that.
BUT this is a challenge is it not? So I will endeavour to get more sleep.
Last night was good. I read Eric's post about sleep habits and I put the following into practice:
No Electronic screen 2 hours before bed
Closed the curtains
Set the aircon at 24
And I slept very well until Solly decided that it was play time at 3. So I turfed him out and closed the door, and woke up again at 7:15. Brilliant!
No work tomorrow, so I'll have another go at 8 hours tonight.
And today - drink 8 glasses of water - easy peasy!
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