Sleep is back on the menu.

Driving through a red light while asleep is a red herring. Actively choosing not to sleep is a red flag. I'm already ahead of myself. Jump into the time machine on your right and take a trip back to 2017 with me.

Time machine noises.

Did you make it with me in one piece? That is great to hear; now we can continue the story.

On a day, in a month, in the year 2017, I was driving home from the day job. I stopped the red light, between the humming of the cars, muffled conversations between friends, and the outside smell. I found myself asleep at the wheel. Good thing the light was red. In my dream, I was driving. In reality, I was sleeping.

My saving grace was that people were honking their horns enough that it got through to me to wake up. I can't recall ever being as afraid as I was then behind the wheel of a car as I was at that time.

This started me on my journey to learn that I have sleep apnea and that my relationship with sleep was toxic. Between 2006 and 2017, rest and I didn't seem to like one another. So jump back into the time machine; we are going to 2009 for a moment. Please keep your hands and feet inside the time machine at all times. Unless you don't like having them.

I would forego sleep in college to prepare for exams, travel, parties, work, business, and gaming. If I could find a reason to not sleep, I probably would take it. Until that, lack of sleep began to affect grades. I'll never forget 2009 when I stayed up for 72 hours to prepare for finals. I took those finals and slept for what felt like 24 hours. This was the first sign that my relationship with sleep started becoming corrosive.

Now we're going to head to 2013 when I was laid off from my first job. It was my first job. I ended up going to Portugal a day after the layoff. That, however, is a story for another day. It was around this time that I jumped into Entrepreneurship. It was intoxicating. I also began prescribing to the no sleep philosophy that I feel pervades this space and many other spaces. Instead of sleeping and getting rest, I was working, networking, or at some Entrepreneur event looking for a new client or at some hackathon. I somehow trained myself to function on 5 hours or less of sleep. It was almost always less than 5. If you're sleeping, someone else is working or whatever the saying is. Well, I believed it. While continuing to ruin what I'm sure was becoming sleep apnea.

There are even more instances during this period where sleep just was not a priority. Let's go back to 2017 before the near-accident happened. Sleep decided on this day that it would no longer be ignored. Before the end of 2017, I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and began my subsequent journey to fix my sleep issues.

I still struggle with my sleep problems. It is, however, much better than it was back then. I do, however, need to improve it. So, in 2022, here are my sleep resolutions.

1. Sleep a minimum of 6-8 hours a night. This is sometimes easier said than done because of work, business, and other responsibilities. One of the most significant ways for me to achieve this is to stop scheduling meetings or appointments when it gets to the time that I need to be sleeping. In addition, I'll make sure to set the alarm to go off 30 minutes before it's time for me to sleep.
2. Create a before I go to sleep, sleep routine. I'm terrible about just getting done with whatever and just going to sleep. This new routine will include what I outlined in step 1. In addition to taking a shower, reading or writing, praying or meditating, and making sure my phone is off or not near me before I go to bed.
3. My final sleep resolution is to be kind to myself regarding my sleep. Some days will be better than others. I need to make sure I give myself the grace that as long as I'm actively attempting to get proper sleep and rest, that is a step in the direction.

What are your sleep resolutions? I hope they include sleep.