If you’re a baseball fan, you probably know that spring training started at the end of February. (Go Cubs Go!) Inspired by lengthening days, slightly warmer temps, and a whisper for a change within me, I decided to do some spring training myself.
You see, I’ve been trying—with little luck—to convince my body to get up a little earlier for a while now.
But, when I don’t sleep enough, I feel it in my body even beyond being tired.
You see, my old schedule, prior to leaving my full-time job, was to get up at 5:00 a.m., hit the gym, rush home to shower, and speed to work, where I would often stay until 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 p.m. or even later, depending on what was going on that I felt I needed to accomplish. I’d often stay up until midnight, only to get up sleep-deprived and do it all over again the next day.
This chronic lack of sleep and “slay the day” approach led my body to become super sensitive and defensive around sleep. It now rebels when I don’t get enough. I feel inflammation in my digestive system, my head can hurt, and I can get brain fog, as well as other aches and pains. Sometimes I can even feel my lymph nodes swelling as my lymph system struggles to do its job without the sleep time it needs to flush itself out.
Coffee doesn’t help, and in fact, can sometimes make it worse. That’s a whole other story for another time.
This girl needs her sleep.
Like many people, working from home has caused a shift in our sleep schedule. We’re going to bed later, because we don’t have to get up quite so early to get my handsome hubby to the office. Since I can work whenever I want, I can sleep in and take my time to get up. I can feel that my body is healing as a result.
What’s great with this schedule is that my body gets the rest it needs, and I don’t start my day jumping out of bed into task mode or rushing to arrive somewhere on time, which can stress the nervous system, like I did for many years.
I realize what a privilege it is to set my own schedule, yet it comes with its own consequences. The problem with it is that I lose a good chunk of my morning, which means time to practice, time to move through my to-do list, and time to do things I love. So I end up staying up later, which then perpetuates the cycle.
Plus, with our shift to daylight savings time looming here in the U.S., I knew that if I didn’t do something soon, I would suffer when it was time to “spring forward.”
Thankfully, I made the wise decision back in January to attend and put my name in the hat to present at a four-day, international virtual coaching conference, which required me to get up and be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed much earlier than I had become accustomed to rising.
I did end up being on the schedule to present, and it required me to be on my game, first thing in the morning.
So even though I didn’t have to attend the early morning events live, I got it together, went to bed earlier, and am now on the sleep schedule I was aiming to have.
Sometimes using an external factor to create a structure for the change you want to make is the magic that you need to make it happen.
But it was tough!
The first day, my stomach was a mess. The second day, I had a headache. By the third day, I was easing into it. And the last day of the conference, was almost painless.
I’m committed to getting the sleep that I need, so if something comes up, I will do what I need to take care of body. I’m just a little more focused on protecting my bedtime than my wake up call now, and it’s helping.
I don’t know how long it will last. What I do know is that at least I’ll be a little less shell-shocked when daylight savings time arrives. That alone will be worth it.
Speak Your Truth
How is your sleep schedule? What do you do to prepare for daylight savings time? What challenges are you having with your sleep right now and how is that impacting your life? Let me know in a quick comment!
In wellness, joy, and inspiration,
Tami