I remember having dinner with a friend back this summer, and speaking about this blog. Over two fresh squeezed juices, and a bowl of vegetarian meatballs in a small Asian restaurant downtown; we laughed for a minute about how all my entries seemed to be “rainbows and giggles” (meaning, I made a serious attempt to not write anything negative on here). That’s true. If there is anything I can’t stand, its reading peoples facebook status’s when they are complaining about life, their long day, how everyone “sucks”, or even better…the subtle messages of hatred towards the opposite gender that just let them down and was “such a disappointment”. I made a decision that reading my blog would leave you feeling happy, motivated, or at least a little more educated in the overall health department. However, at times I questioned my method. This stream of constant "happy" posts...How long would it take before my writing voice became annoying to anyone reading who was having a bad day? I am only human. I do not wake up to fresh fruit parfaits waiting for me, nor do I plant vegetables in my own organic garden here on the upper east side (although one day I’d love to have a garden, no matter where I live, city or no city). I work full time, I am a full time graduate student, and I am involved in two local community organizations. I am busy, stressed, and a type- A New Yorker. Yes, sometimes I order breakfast online and have the delivery man come right to my cubicle. Bottom line: I study nutrition and health because I care about it, but day to day decisions happen for me too. So I decided to change it up a bit, and write tonight to let you in on whats not going so well right now for me, which is my sleeping pattern. But rather than make this negative, I want to share what I am doing about it. How can we apply our basic health knowledge to bettering our situations? I want to share with you my little sleep story. So here you go …my not-so-perfect health situation.
Since late August, I haven’t slept more than 6 hours a night. Earlier in the summer, I remember writing a blog entry that opened up with how I sleep for 9 hours every night, and sadly that used to be true. My co workers at the time teased me often, because I would swear by my perfect 9 hours that left me smiling and bright eyed each day in the office. Like clockwork I fell asleep at 11, and woke up at 8. So what happened? I have been asking myself this for weeks. Sure, I have a lot on my plate, but I didn’t think that differed from any other time in my life considering I became a multi-tasker in the 3rd grade. I think It started with a slight change of lifestyle. Towards the end of summer I started going out more, (which I am blaming on a direct anxiety about returning to school). Knowing between school and work that the “fun might be over” until December, I think I justified too many Weeknights out. Our bodies adjust pretty quickly, so it only took about a week of this behavior to start not going to sleep until 1am. It was too early to notice, but I had a much later “bed time” and this was just the beginning. I started complaining at work that I was only sleeping 6-7 hours a night now because “I can’t fall asleep at night”. So, one Friday night during this time, I decided to take my health knowledge and put it to the test. Something to think about if you are having trouble falling asleep at night:1. Those who sit at a desk all day and are not very active may have more trouble falling asleep at night, since you are not using your muscles enough throughout the day. It’s kind of like a “couch potato” syndrome (although that is not what I am calling you). Unfortunately, many of our jobs keep us strapped to a desk 9 hours a day. Try exercising 30 minutes a day, and you may find yourself wiped by the time you lay down at night.
2. Baths: I’ve said it before, but a hot bath can relax your muscles and be a free spa treatment for improving rest and relaxation. Try warm baths with lavender scents, and even a cup of sleepy time tea to accompany it, and get “in the mood” for sleep.
3. Although this is never what I recommend…we all know that a glass of wine (when had in moderation) can make you a little sleepy. Sometimes, a small glass of red wine can be the trick to calming down and drifting off. I hope this one doesn’t get confused for me pushing alcoholism. I promote moderation.
On this Friday night…I did all three. I went to the gym after work, worked myself hard. Left the gym with my gal pal Morgan where we sat at a nice bar to catch up about our week over (one) glass of red wine. Then, I hopped in a cab and went home. I filled up a bubble bath, turned my bathroom into my free spa, and exited an hour later. I actually said to my roommate “if this all doesn’t work tonight, I am going to see a doctor”. But it did. Praise my pillows. I fell asleep that Friday night by 11pm, and got decent sleep. Unfortunately, I cannot do all 3 of those things every night, and of course this was a one night fix that didn’t last long. Soon after, I went from not being able to fall asleep until 1am, to falling asleep late AND waking up sporadically numerous times throughout the night. To ice this cake, soon after that it was all of the above, AND waking up before the alarm went off in the morning.
Yes, September came. The new job started, the classes started, my commitments began getting plugged into the calendar. I was amazed at the idea that subconsciously I could be so nervous about something that it would affect me this much. But if it were you who were writing to me about this, I would tell you to listen to your body. Our bodies work in a delicate balance. I don’t have a sleep issue…I have an issue that is making it difficult for me to shut down at bed time. So,…fix the issue and get your sleep back. The one thing I wanted to do was fix the reason why I wasn’t sleeping, and not medicate myself with sleeping pills.
My thoughts: Reasons people can’t sleep- stress, dehydration, eating too much before bed (yes your digestive system can keep you awake as it does all that work), not moving enough during the day to become adequately tired, & the classic…unable to turn off the brain.
My tip to myself (and others who suffer): If you are going to pick a time to think about everything you need to do, people you need to call back, and obligations you have coming up….pick the morning. Because that’s where they will all be when you wake up, regardless of how much sleep you get the night before. Right before bed is not the time to start writing “to do” lists and evaluating decisions you’ve recently made. You may as well leave it alone, because it’s not going anywhere before breakfast.
So what happened here? Well, I reached a breaking point. At a month and a half of no sleep, I cracked. I became so upset, saying things like “I can’t keep going like this. I just want to sleep! I can’t do my homework, or my job, or anything this exhausted!” With tears at this point flowing out of my eyes, I once again thought about where I could go from here. And then bam, I remembered something. I went to Duane Reade and purchased Melatonin. Melatonin my friends, is all natural. In fact, our bodies make it! It’s what physiologically speaking, has programmed us to feel sleepy in the dark, rather than the daytime. Amazing isn’t it? Although I never wanted to take anything for my sleep issue, I felt myself becoming more ill from the severe lack of sleep, than I would have been if I took a little Melatonin. If I was going to take anything, it would have to be 100% natural (which this is). Consider it an extra boost of mother nature. While the melatonin has helped me through a few nights, I am still working on this issue. What I want to stress though, is that after a few nights of losing sleep I did not run to prescriptions. We need to think about why we suffer. Why do we have headaches? Why do we have stomach cramps? And remember that the real goal should be to fix the reason, and not mask the pain with alternative solutions. I thought hard about what I was eating during this time, if I was drinking enough water, and how my relationships with friends and family were at the current time as well.
Overall health is defined as physical, social, and mental. If you do not have all 3, regardless of how often you hit the gym, you are not considered “healthy”. I am active at the gym, and I choose my foods carefully each day, but if stress is keeping me awake at night even when I am trying so hard to stay asleep…than this is a health problem for me, and only myself can tackle it and beat it. That of course, is exactly what I plan to do. Overall health is not easy to accomplish all the time. We live in a crazy crazy world. One that keeps us in the office until 10pm, or tells us we are saving money if we go the next size up with our French Fry order. But we can do it. We can be healthy.
Wishing you hours of deep sleep (because sleep promotes weight loss, and less wrinkles).
And thank you for listening <3
Jess
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