Greetings and Salutations, Blog Readers!

Today we are talking about sleep, and how much I love it.

As some of you may know, I don’t often get a full night’s rest, no matter how hard I try. I struggle with bad dreams and insomnia, as do most the women in my family. I have worked hard on sleeping better, but despite going to bed at a not only reasonable, but early time, I will toss and turn so much that when I wake up and check my Fitbit sleep tracker, I will discover of the 8 hours I spent in bed, I slept maybe 3-4 of them.

Because of this shitty quality of sleep, I tend to prioritize my sleep, knowing how important it is for my health, and knowing how many things are improved with sleeping.

Physical and Mental health are both easier to fix and maintain a proper sleep schedule, and I am hardly the first blogger to talk about this.

BUT- Last night I managed to get to bed at the time I wanted to, and it felt wonderful. I have been doing little things, to slowly make my evening winddown more productive and useful for a better nights rest, and last night I got more done than usual and got to bed at a decent time.

I drank my tea, I avoided things that would be too stimulating before bed, I read a tiny bit, I avoided caffeine in the evening, all the good stuff I should do. I could have stretched before hand and avoided being on my phone, but little steps lead to big results.

I managed to sleep most of the night, getting nearly 5 hours of sleep, which is fairly unheard of for me, and I was super happy to wake up feeling very well rested.

Now I want to make going to bed that early my new norm. I try to wake up between 6:00 AM and 6:30 every work morning, and going to my bed and reading, turning off the lights and going to bed by 10:30, left me happy and feeling like I finally managed to achieve my goal of being in bed by 9:30, and lights out by 10:30 which gives me the ability to read and relax, before drifting off to sleep.

And I feel great for it! My period arrived two days early and I don’t even mind, because I have the energy and mental capacity to handle it, having gotten a decent but of sleep- Even with my tossing and turning, I secure nearly 5 hours of sleep! Amazing!

So now I am chasing that elusive good night’s sleep- My goal is to one day break over 6 hours, and then 8. I know sleeping a good amount every night, a proper 6-8 hours, is one of the easiest ways to improve your physical and mental health, much like drinking water and working out, so I want to improve my sleep quality.

I do well with drinking water, not so well with working out, so let’s get some good sleep…and more stretching, in my routine.

I think tonight I will try my daily stretching in the evening and see if it helps me sleep. As you may recall I tried my workouts during the day, using my lunch break for better time management – but I think maybe doing it before bed will help me sleep better, which is even better than saving myself 30 minutes in the scheme of things.

So, are you doing everything you can to better your sleep patterns and quality?

Let me know and subscribe/follow the blog if you want to see how the efforts to improve my sleep go!

Thanks for reading,

Abbi