The Big Resolution
For 2012, I have two smaller resolutions and one larger resolution. My smaller resolutions are to be more healthy and to manage my time better. These are all well and good, but they aren’t going to happen without my last, biggest resolution – to get more sleep.
There was a time, back in college, when four hours of sleep a night was sufficient. Sure, I took a good nap every afternoon, but I was completely functional going to bed after two every night and still getting up for classes the next morning. I once went four days on about six hours of sleep.
And then, I came down with mononucleosis two weeks before our wedding. When I finally got over the exhaustion of that, kids came along. So four hours of sleep a night is no longer enough. Double that is hardly enough some nights now. Now, I need a lot more sleep to be functional.
What happens when I don’t get enough sleep? The last six months’ of frustratingly unorganized and unproductive days. I’m too tired to get up and exercise. I’m too tired to cook and eat the healthy foods we all should be enjoying. I’m too tired to read a book or sew, so I play on my phone. I yell at the kids because my patience is out the door when I don’t sleep. I just don’t have the energy to manage my time better or to be as healthy as I’d like. I’m not the wife or mom that my family deserves, and I’m not living my life as well as I could.
So before I can get going with my healthy, efficient new year, it’s time for me to go to bed early and take that afternoon nap, guilt-free. Then, we’re off to the park, on walks, to the fabric store, and all the other fun places we’d like to go as a family. And 2012 is going to be an awesome year for it.
Are you a functional mom on not enough sleep? How do you cope with a lack of sleep?
