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February 07, 2007
i dream of sleep
my illness drags on. i've gone back to work, pretty much, but sleep remains elusive, and i'm convinced now that sleep is both the key to my immediate recovery and the solution to other ills, like my continuing inability to fight off colds and my inability to let the stress at work roll off and not bother me.
it was all j's idea in the beginning; he theorized that i am chronically fatigued. come to think of it-- when was the last time i had eight hours uninterrupted? hm. not sure. maybe he has a point.
and then i thought about the fact that sleep is important for psychological well-being, and that's when it occurred to me that maybe the reason why work seems extraordinarily stressful is because i'm never really fully processing each day during my sleep cycle.
changing eating and exercise habits are difficult, but sleep? heck, i can do that! it's like saying, "wow, i should eat more," or "i should totally watch way more tv."
so in my usual methodical way i've devised a plan and i've begun to enact it. the trick is always sticking with the plan over time. i'm particularly bad at that sort of thing.
i'm also suddenly very curious about the sleeping habits of other people i know. i was telling joe today that i'd like to poll all of our co-workers and find out: what time do you go to bed? when do you wake up? when do you leave the house for work after waking?
i don't know if i'll actually try to take this poll at work, but if any of you have read this far and would like to chime in via comments or private e-mail, i'd be curious. how much sleep do you normally get in a night?
Posted by lisa at February 07, 2007 08:57 PM
Comments
i usually go to bed around midnight or 1am. i have the luxury of not having to be at work until after noon, though.
i have stopped using an alarm clock (unless i have an appointment or something that i need to wake up for), and that alone has changed the way i feel each day. waking up naturally ROCKS. i normally get around 8 or 9 hours of sleep.
after i wake up, i have a smallish breakfast (cereal, yogurt, fruit) while watching last night's "daily show", then for the last couple weeks i've been going to the gym and working out for 45 minutes or so. i then come home, take a shower and go to work.
i LOVE spending my mornings in this way. sleep + exercise = happiness.
Posted by: xta on February 7, 2007 10:44 PM
Do you really want an answer from someone with no job? ;)
Posted by: Joseph H. Vilas on February 7, 2007 11:51 PM
Joe: actually, it would be interesting, although i wonder if residual effects from the car accident affect your sleeping patterns.
it's christa who really makes me sick :)
y'all might be interested to see the comments on the LJ version of my blog, clovepod.livejournal.com.
Posted by: lisa on February 8, 2007 12:04 PM
egads, christa's schedule is ideal. sadly, my job is always going to require me to report sometime around 8am. Blah.
I go to bed around 11, wake up at 7, pretty consistently. Although I do sleep quite a lot on the weekends, if I don't have anything scheduled in the mornings.
Posted by: pinky on February 8, 2007 01:28 PM
during the week, i usually end up getting 5-6 hours sleep. any less than that, or if stress levels are up, and i start to get ground down. on weekends i'll usually get more like 7-8. i'd probably be happier, and better off, with around 7 hours but i'm rarely sleepy before midnight and the dogs are usually waking me up before 7. it is what it is...
Posted by: georg on February 8, 2007 07:58 PM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.