Cue in the craziness of this week, Stage Right!
Ahhh good morning everyone! It’s Monday and it’s a SHOW WEEK for me! Yup, I’m performing in a piece for the semesterly show for the graduating seniors and it’s gonna be a good one.
But it’s also a whirlwind of a week. Tech rehearsals, homework, papers, dress rehearsal, three shows…you get the point.
This cat might be the most accurate thing I’ve seen today. Anyone else feel like this on Mondays sometimes?
I actually did wake up like this today.
*Cue “Flawless” by Beyonce.*
College students are most-commonly known for our lack of sleep and plethora of empty coffee cups. Sleep is secondary to us because we always have so many things to do and not enough time to do it. We stay up late in order to get everything done and wake up groggy from our lack of sleep. Hence the empty coffee cups. Don’t worry, I know everyone is different. No judgment at all!
As a current college student, I totally get it, but I’m convinced I’m the biggest “anti” college student. I go to bed around 10:30PM on weeknights and I wake up around 6AM Monday-Friday. By choice. You can go ahead and laugh, get it out of your system! Personally, I love waking up early because I get a lot done, including a quick workout before classes and THEN coffee/blog time. But hey, that’s what I like and that’s what works for me!
As luck would have it, my mom sent me an article the other day about a book written by Arianna Huffington (yes, of The Huffington Post) called “The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time”. In the book, Huffington stresses the importance of sleep in our everyday lives and how a renewed relationship with it can help “take back control of our lives”. Our society’s lack of sleep contributes to a bunch of things that Huffington mentions, including: weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and even Alzheimer’s. Sleep deprivation is one of the biggest problems of our society today. Yesterday one of my co-workers even told me that he lives on about 2 hours of sleep per night. HOW?!
Have I convinced you yet that sleep is uber important?
This is why I have to get at least 7 hours of sleep per night. Sure, I’ll do what I need to do for the night but sometimes things can wait till morning. Why should I pull an all-nighter and sacrifice my health just for the sake of getting things done (or not)? Not worth it.
Being out late at a party is one thing because you know you can make up for your lost sleep the next day! Or not, like on Sunday morning when I had to get up and go to work at 9:30 after being out all night…not complaining because I had so much fun!
But anyway, if I don’t have to stay up later that I need to on the weeknights, I don’t.
Huffington mentions how our addiction to technology interrupts our sleep too. Well what a coincidence because you know what I need to stop doing? Being on my phone as I’m trying to go to sleep. I can’t help it, those recipe videos from Tasty are soooo much fun to watch! Who else knows what I’m talking about??
Anywho, it’s obvious that sleep is SO IMPORTANT. It helps our muscles repair properly, keeps our immune system in tip-top shape, and makes you generally happier. Why do you think your doctor tells you to get a lot of rest when you’re sick? Cause your immune system needs to recharge!
Here’s an excerpt that I love:
“Everywhere you turn, sleep deprivation is glamorized and celebrated: ‘You snooze, you lose.’ The phrase ‘catch a few z’s’ is telling: the last letter of the alphabet used to represent that last thing on our culture’s shared priority list. The combination of a deeply misguided definition of what it means to be successful in today’s world—that it can come only through burnout and stress—along with the distractions and temptations of a 24/7 wired world, has imperiled our sleep as never before”.
Isn’t it crazy how often we put sleep on the back-burner?
Do yourself a favor this week and get an extra hour of sleep if you can. Your body and brain will thank you tomorrow. So you don’t end up being like this…
For more information on Arianna Huffington’s book, click THIS link. If you would like to purchase the book, click THIS link. I’m definitely going to have to read it!
Now tell me…
- How many hours of sleep do you usually get per night?
- Are you a night owl or an early bird?
Keep calm and SLEEP ON everyone!
Also, don’t forget to BE WELL.❤
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