I really enjoy sleeping. I love a good sleep and hate not getting enough. Even when I’m sleeping, while dreaming, I can be conscious of a good unconsciousness. Sometimes I wake up refreshed and go back to sleep just for fun, wishing I was tired enough to make it last longer. It’s like a day at a spa for my mind, an activity to be savored.
It’s safe to say I’m not a morning person. My energy peak hits around 7 – 8 pm and I always feel more energetic in the evening and at night. I like to sleep in; in fact I look forward to sleeping in all week. On the weekend I’ll usually sleep until 11:00 or 12:00 and love it. I recharge my batteries on weekends. I find I get more and more tired throughout the week, from not getting enough sleep, and on Saturday I make up for it.
It seems that how much sleep I get (within reason obviously) isn’t as important as what time I get up. If I go to bed at 4 in the morning and wake up at 11 I’ll feel way better than if I had gone to bed at 10 and woke up at 6. I need 7-8 hours of sleep to feel good, 6 to be functional and 5 or less to feel terrible all day. I wish I was one of these people that could be energetic and productive with less sleep, it would be much easier to get stuff done if you only sleep for five hours. The quality of my night’s sleep often determines the energy level of the rest of the day.
As much as I like sleeping I don’t like taking naps. Any time I take a nap in the evening I wake up feeling disorientated and tired. So no matter how tired I might get I won’t go take a nap because it makes me feel worse. Plus a half hour nap often becomes a three hour nap and it sucks going to sleep at 7pm and waking up three hours later.
The exception to this rule is power naps at work or school. I don’t have to drive at work and we’re often driving all around Edmonton and area to different job sites. Being in a moving vehicle makes me drowsy (if I’m not driving) and I’ll nod of sometimes for 10-20 minutes. These little power naps feel fantastic, I swear, 10 minutes in a truck sleeping feels like 3 hours of good sleep.
My sleep schedule isn’t usually a problem but there are a couple clashes. The big one I’ve been worrying about is the Tai Chi class offered on Saturday’s at 9am. I have to learn the Tai Chi long form for second degree black belt but I wish there was a class at another time. I always stay up late on Friday nights with friends and sleep in Saturday mornings. Getting up at 9 is not an option unless I don’t do anything Fridays and even then the rest of my weekend suffers. Plus I like to go to open training on Saturday’s for the last hour or so when it’s less busy and I have more room to swing stuff around. Being at Kung Fu from 9 am to 2pm is a bit too much for me. I’m going to have to explore my options on this one; I’m hoping I can get someone to teach me the form at other times.
I hate how sleeping, or enjoying sleep, is often associated with laziness. Everyone has a different, natural sleep schedule and you have to accommodate for it. Just because you like sleeping in doesn’t mean you’re lazy. Sweet dreams everyone, until next week.
2 comments:
I can teach you tai chi if you want to stay a bit later on Fridays sometimes. That's really the only time I'm available or for about half an hour on Thursday nights, but you're usually not there at that time. Let me know. :)
Hey, I want in too! My Tai Chi got very rusty over the last 2 months...
Oh, and just a tidbit of info here- apparently you need to hit REM to recharge your batteries. You need approx 3hrs of sleep you get any quality REM time in- we have a long and boring sleep cycle that I won't bore you with here. Strange how some facts just stick with you. Another one- pi to the ninth digit is 3.141592654. I didn't use a calculator. Sad, eh?
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