Finding balance: Sleep 8

I was trying to get some work done tonight, actually, but after changing my corporate password I forgot it (well, to be fair, I typed in what I thought was my new corporate password to no avail) thus locked myself out of my corporate account.  I had hoped to write a few more emails and format two new pieces of content, but instead I'm out of things to do and am cut off from the work I love.  Sob.  Sniff.

What a perfect time, actually, to reflect on work-life balance and the newest behavioral change I'd like to start to make 2013 the healthiest year yet!

At the beginning of the year, I set out to "eat healthier," whatever that means.  I found that I was eating a bit too much at lunch every day, and thus have since started eating off of smaller plates and have committed to Fruit First, or eating a piece of fruit 30-60 minutes before lunch has started.  I've stuck with it, actually, and Fruit First is simple to remember, much more so than telling myself to eat healthier.    Starting with fruit has taken the edge off of my hunger and it helps me get an extra serving in every day.  It's positive (as opposed to another behavior I considered, No Bacon) and alliterative, so it's easy to remember.

With the amount I've been stressing though, as of late, I realized it is high time to add another behavior as I roll into the year's second quarter, and the behavior that I am violating the most is Not Sleeping Enough.  Again, what is enough?  I wish I could get an endless amount of sleep!  I find that I am normal (bubbly, happy, functional) with seven hours... but if that seven hours slips, my immune system takes a big hit and (guess what?) I end up sick again.  With so much travel planned in the next few months (less comfy beds, loud hotel rooms, uncomfortable plane seats, tons of germs!), I know I need to be more diligent about sleep.

Thus, the new behavior to help me find balance: Sleep 8.  Yes, my goal is eight hours of sleep per night, and I hope to hit that 90% of the time!  I realized that an extra hour of sleep each night is an extra night of sleep each week.  When I first thought about it like that, I wondered if that was the best way to spend an "extra" seven hours.  I could learn Spanish faster.  I could read more.

But so much of the research I've read lately about health traces back to sleep, and how we aren't getting enough of it.  Stress wears me out, and the most restorative thing I can do is to sleep.  And it also depends on where I get that time from -- my goal is to "get" the extra hour of sleep from two sources: work and television.

See, I've finally set up my Roku and have resolved to cancel my cable tv, normally because I get pulled into something awful on [insert cable network I shouldn't watch (ever) here] and get sucked into television when I could be [learning Spanish, reading, working out, etc.].  And I already admit that I work too much, so if I can pick up 30 minutes a day from each place, it should be easy.  That extra hour a night can make up for the sleep debt that has followed me around for years.  I hate to be in debt financially -- why go into sleep debt?

So tonight starts the experiment -- it is 9:44pm as I write this, and I am about to head to my huge, comfy bed to read a bit... and I might actually get nine hours of sleep tonight.

Yes, only I can overachieve at sleep.

xo
Sarah