12. The power of sleep
A 2016 study found that one in three adults in the United States don’t get enough sleep. Are you one of them? Do you wake up in the morning feeling refreshed or do you still feel tired? Do you have enough energy to get through your day or do you start dozing by afternoon?
For some of us, a shortage of sleep comes from not allowing sufficient time in our schedule to get the necessary seven to nine hours. Factors such as a second job, working while going to school, or the demands of raising young children may all restrict our sleep schedule.
For others, sleep is reduced because of disruptions in sleep — an inability to fall asleep or difficulty staying asleep. Sometimes it’s the body that can’t relax; sometimes it’s the mind that won’t stop whirring.
As a child, I was insomniac. I don’t know whether the fighting between my parents made me anxious, or if keeping late-night hours provided a respite from their clamor, a time I could be alone with my thoughts, but I was given to going to bed very late and often not sleeping even when I did. I’d listen to the radio or stare into the dark. My mother once soothed me by offering this advice: If you can’t sleep, just rest, and even today I still rely on these words.
As an adult, I didn’t put much stock in sleep. I might have secretly harbored the belief that Sleep is for suckers. I did…
