bythemethod.com blog

I’ve read a great deal about sleep and how a lack of it (or even too much of it) can be bad for your health. Some calim that if you miss some it doesn’t matter, others talk about a sleep deficite (like a credit card – if you overdraw you have to one day pay back with the same amount).

Not so many years ago one of my four children was going through a bad time teething. Nearly every night was spent trying to catch a few hours in between having to care for an upset child. We all need a certain amount of prolonged sleep to get the rest we need and I was definately sleep deprived.

Yes I could still do some work but I found that I tired out easily and couldn’t really concentrate on what needed doing. My health suffered and a skin problem surfaced. Feeling like a Zomby for most of the day was not condusive to good working practises.

What I noticed was that my stress levels went through the roof. I was sometimes too tired to get angry but every little job that needed doing was difficult and stressful. Even having to get up from the sofa in the evenings was a chore that I started to hate. Life gets very strange when you don’t get enough sleep.

So my tip for this time is to make sure you are getting enough sleep. How much is enough will depend on you but most of us need around 8 hours of sleep. You need to find out for yourself how much you need. If you miss some then get to bed extra early the night after to make sure you catch up.

How can you discover how much sleep you need

Give yourself plenty of time to do this and make sre you don’t do it at a criritcal time. You need to set yourself a time for when you will get up and you MUST stick to this time, every day!

Why the same time every day?

You have a couple of internal clocks that need resetting every day. They run at different speeds and so they need to be synchronised the same time every day. If you have an irregular getting up time then they will always be out of synchronisation and this will make you feel dozey every day.

So get up the same time every day.

Now give yourself plenty of sleep for a few days – give yourself too much sleep.

Now stay up for 30 mins longer.

Keep pushing the time back until you start to feel tired during the day.

Now add 30 mins to your sleep (e.g. go to bed 30 mins earlier). Once you feel fine during the day you will know how much sleep you need.

From time to time you may need more sleep or want to stay up later. Whatever you do make sure you still get up at the same time each morning. If you lie in to catch up then your clocks will go wrong again and you won’t feel the benefit of your sleep.