For the last few years, eight hours of sleep has been the elusive goal. Some days it just happens naturally and it’s glorious! But most days I am waking up at 2AM, 3AM 4AM and onward. Weekends seem to be the worst, go figure!
Yes, I have pondered this horrible phenomenon and and I don’t like it one bit, yet it continues. Drop the caffeine (again)…check. Limit screen time before bed….check. The problem is that I fall asleep like a trooper. I’m out cold and sleep like the dead for a few hours. But then the witching hour comes and I wake up. If I’m lucky I fall back asleep…again and again until I wake up for good. Some days though, I’m wide awake and I know that it’s useless, I may as well get out of bed versus toss and turn for hours.
Hormonal? I do know that some of those times I wake up stinkin’ hot! So yeah, most likely hormonal. But whatever the reason, it’s a curse. Or maybe, just maybe it’s a blessing!
The blessing comes in with exercise. During the work week our alarm goes off at 5AM. Ungodly early if you ask me, but it is what it is. Jason hops in the showier first and the best time to work in 40-45 minutes of exercise in my daily routine is while he is in the shower. The 45 minutes he is in bathroom are the perfect time to exercise. I am not being interrupted by anything. It’s early and I’m not thinking about, let alone be ready to start laundry or empty the dishwasher. I can get my sweat on, then when Jason is out of the shower I can start the morning routine stuff….and by the time he leaves I have cooled down and I can take my shower. (Nothing worse than sweating while you are IN the shower!) it just works! Well it works when it happens!
You see some mornings that alarm goes off and I just want to stumble to the couch and curl up for that 45 minutes….usually with gran plans to fall asleep (although that rarely happens). Those are the mornings I struggle with that 5AM exercise!
This week I vowed to exercise more regularly. I have been doing so good. Monday I nailed it at 5AM. Tuesday I sweated my behind off! Wednesday was a victory. Thursday I conquered. See, I was even smiling at 5AM when I conquered it!
And then came today…Friday. It is 5:55 as I write this and I’m laying on the couch….and have been laying on the couch for roughly fifty four and a half minutes. I did not exercise! So what happened, I was going for broke with a perfect week?
The answer finally hit me this morning as I lay here. On the mornings that I wake up and I’m awake before the alarm, that 5AM exercise comes more easily. Even the mornings where I am in and out of sleep, exercise is easier to swallow. It’s the mornings where the alarm jars me from a dead sleep that exercise is shoved to the back burner. And that is the blessing of the sleep issues I have been having!
I have grand plans for today. I don’t want to mess up my perfect week. Perfect being hitting the goal of 5 days of exercise. Seriously, it’s day 5. I’m so close to ‘perfection’. I have a couple options…I could try to hop on the exercise bike at some point…on breaks if it doesn’t rile the dog up too much. Or I can exercise right after work. I am vowing to do one or the other. I’ve made this vow before though…and usually fail miserably! But surely I can do it one day…right???
I struggle with sleep too. Your issue is my issue. I get up early to do my exercise before work. It isn't easy but I have made it a habit. I am too tired after work. I think it is fantastic you got 4 days in! I know that you & Jason are active on the weekends so in my opinion you've a win! Keep it up.
ReplyDelete