My New Years Resolution to More Sleep as a Full Time Student, Single Mother, and Employee

With today's society, it is so hard to find time to get more than at least 7 hours of sleep a day. Most adults, whether women or men, are usually busy striving for better lives. Striving for more money, working on their careers, doing schoolwork for high school or college, or even just doing something that includes their hobbies. Possibly binge watching their favorite Netflix series, hanging out with their friends or their love interest, or just browsing Facebook. Whatever it is, it usually doesn't include a whole lot of sleep. Now, that said, I am included in this sleepless frenzy. Between running a daycare for my 7-month-old son day and night, working 8 hours a day and often times working overtime, and working on school projects for another few hours at night, I'm lucky to sleep more than even 5 hours before my son becomes a human alarm clock.

It becomes difficult managing my time because of all the hats I wear. Once I'm off work, I have to bargain with my son. I feed him and make sure he's eaten sufficiently, play with him because he usually wants a lot of my attention once I'm free, give him a bath, fight with him to get his clothes on, and then I lay him down. Once that's done, I'm usually pooped. I wait about an hour or two to start moving around to make sure he doesn't wake up, and then I still have a load of things to do. I usually have dishes to wash, to clean my house, to shower myself, and I have to cook myself dinner as well. But there's a solution to every problem, and I think I've found mine.

My First Resolution on the Road to More Zzz's

Yoga is my solution. Yoga not only keeps you physically balanced and balanced in the mind, it also releases tension in the body, which ultimately helps you to relax throughout the day. It also helps energize the body as well, because the relief it brings to the tension in the muscles helps make you a lot more limber. It definitely helps with rest if you implement doing it before bed, because if you relax the muscles enough in the body, it helps you get to sleep faster. It also doesn't hurt that the videos I watch on YouTube have meditation music. This also calms the mind and helps me think much more clearly. I had a routine, which usually included yoga and my daily workout before having a baby that I used to follow, but haven't really been able to find the time to implement it in the mornings. I also have started working remotely since COVID began, which means I can no longer utilize my jobs gym. My day starts off now with my human alarm clock waking me around about 6 or 7 am in the morning. After that, I have about an hour or maybe 30 minutes to get my son changed, feed him, and then take care of my own business. You know, shower, get dressed, brush my teeth, have a small breakfast and coffee, etc.

The solution to my limited time schedule is to start waking up a lot earlier. I think waking earlier will give me time to not only do my morning yoga, have my coffee, change my son, feed him, shower, etc., but it will help me get to bed a lot easier at night and relax me enough throughout the day to get my work done. Considering that I have such a busy schedule, it's essential that I get to bed at a decent time. So perhaps at about 6 or 6:30 am, I can start my day with about 30 minutes of yoga and end it with 30 minutes of yoga as well after I'm done giving my son a bath, feeding him, and putting him to sleep. This will help clear my mind before the day starts and help clear out the stresses of the day (my job is highly busy everyday), and would help balance me mentally and physically.

Resolution # 2 To No More Raccoon Eyes!

The other solution is meditation. The best part about it is you only need about 15 or 20 minutes of meditation a day in order to clear your mind. Some people find that more time is much more helpful. Meditation naturally eases the mind of stress, anxiety, helps you find your inner calm, your inner chi. Some of the oldest Monks and Buddha's in the game also meditate, which explains why they're always so calm and poised. Monks meditate about 1-3 hours a day, which is more than enough time to clear your mind, alleviate your stress, and completely wash away anything that may be mentally troubling you. They are usually in an elated, relaxed state at all times unless forced to step out of character. And even then, they handle themselves with so much class and tact. They may not call it the same thing, but they do it and they also believe it helps, and it most definitely helps you to slow down your thoughts enough to get to sleep soundly. My solution is to do it right before bed. Seeing that my nights are usually filled with feeding my son and trying to calm him enough to get him to sleep, I think my best bet is to do it as soon as my head hits the pillow. That way, I can wake up refreshed and ready to start my day.

Resolution # 3

My next resolution is getting to sleep much sooner. Of course it's hard to plan for that with a jam packed schedule, but it's not impossible. It just requires some sacrificing, like not scrolling on Facebook 'til 2 am, no more binging my favorite shows, and no more sitting up chatting to my friends and my lover all night, but it's doable. More hours of sleep not only takes those raccoon looking bags from underneath your eyes, but it helps you focus more during the day, makes you much less clumsy, it even benefits your mood throughout the day. I notice people who get sufficient sleep have a much happier disposition. The other benefit to more sleep is a reduction to health risks like heart problems and diabetes. It also boosts your immune system to sleep more hours. So, my solution to more rest is more hours of sleep, thus, getting to bed much sooner.

My Final Resolution

I will be moving into a new apartment in a couple days and I find that the apartment I live in now is fine, but the mattress I sleep on is very uncomfortable. It's firm, but way too firm to the point where it causes me a lot of back and knee pain. It also causes pain in my neck and shoulders. It was hell sleeping on it when I was pregnant because of how heavy my belly was and how much my back already hurt from child bearing. My son was 8 pounds 8 ounces in the womb so you can imagine! So, my solution to this problem is a new mattress! I would prefer a memory foam mattress, because this is also a solution to getting more rest. The more comfortable you are once you lay down in bed, the easier it is to drift off and start counting sheep. Also, this will help rectify the back problems I've accumulated since having a child.

So in conclusion, I look forward to more sleep because I really really REALLY could use it!