Falling In Love with Falling Asleep

Sleeping at night and I have a love-hate relationship. In which I mean I love it but it hates me. It teases me for hours every night, letting me slip right to the edge of consciousness before I violently jolt awake and have to restart the process. Then, when I do finally fall asleep, it is all too soon before I have to wake up and I feel like a groggy mess.

At the end of 2021, I reflected on my year and my habits and I realized a lot of the things that held me back this year were the effects of exhaustion and sleep deprivation. My irritability, lack of motivation, excessive naps all of it were all products of me not prioritizing rest.

My goal for 2022 was to change that using three simple steps and here is how it has gone the last 18 days.

1. Make your environment somewhere you WANT to sleep

If you walked into my room at any time in 2021, it was almost guaranteed to look like a war-zone, my bed included. I would leave the top right side of my bed open, but to my left and at my feet it was an “L” of chaos. Clothes, instruments, and remotes surrounded me constantly, and upon reflection that is probably a very large contributor to why I could never rest. I decided to get clean and organized, and treat myself to some items to make me want to keep my environment rest conducive.

Almost everything in this picture is thrifted, but I decided I wanted a new duvet insert, and let me tell you, the Original Lull Duvet from Lull is a game changer. It is the perfect weight to keep me warm but not get overheated, and no matter how much my cat kneads at it, it doesn’t clump like other duvet inserts I have had. With my room so clean and my bed so comfortable, my mind finally calms down enough to sleep at night.

2. Be mindful of how much you sleep

So I could never sleep at night, but my 2021 staple was taking two naps during the day, everyday. I don’t think I can stress enough how not ideal that is, but I still didn’t know exactly how much sleep I was actually getting so I decided I was going to graph it. I made this template to track it, feel free to use it yourself if you would like.

I filled it out using solid navy lines to represent my sleep at night and dashed blue lines to represent naps. Then I made the background white, here is my results for the last 18 days.

I noticed I had more energy after sleeping in hour and a half intervals which has brought me to step number 3

3. Sleep in 90 minute intervals

According to the medical director of the Sleep Medicine Center at Martha Jefferson Hospital, Dr. Chris Winter, a full sleep cycle lasts 90 minutes. By waking up after your REM sleep state instead of during, you will feel refreshed instead of drowsy. I can personally attest to this. I have never felt better in terms of energy and productivity than the last two and a half weeks.

Prioritize Rest. You deserve it.

Prioritizing my sleep schedule has truly been the greatest act of self love I have ever done. I always resented people who told me “your problems will be solved with a good night's sleep” because how dare they? How dare someone tell me my problems are my fault and can easily be fixed? Now I am not saying this is the cure all, but it certainly has improved my life significantly, and my biggest take away is everyone needs to do this.

You deserve rest. You deserve peace. Giving your body its basic necessities is sadly in our culture a radical act of self love, and it is one you deserve to do.

Follow me on instagram @angela.seminara, and tell me how are you prioritizing rest this year?