How To Be Happy Part 2: Get Enough Sleep

You'll feel better.  You'll feel really good. 

Getting enough sleep means taking care of yourself.  It means noticing what things you eat or drink that disrupt your ability to fall asleep.  It means going to bed early, which means giving up some things, and probably turning off the television.  It means being willing to lie in the dark stillness and let your brain roam for a while before you get pulled away into sleep.  That's kind of nice time, if you're open to it.  Making friends with yourself, your unclogged mind, will make you happy, and that still time before you naturally fall asleep is one of the nice ways to do it.  Sometimes that untended brain will race around with worry but as you make its acquaintance you'll learn how to calm it down, how to let it drift gently around.  My edge-of-sleep mind plays with detailed imagery -- I see submarines or beaded jackets or landscapes, and if I have a sleeping companion I describe what I see, in a semi-conscious trancey stupor.  It's an inventive slideshow of random images that leads me into dreams. 

Getting enough sleep means learning what makes you feel good and doing it.  Maybe a bedtime ritual?  Maybe a poetry book beside your bed to read and think about?  Maybe a children's chapter book that you remember from when you were a kid?  Maybe stars on your ceiling?  Maybe one sock? 

Getting enough sleep might mean taking naps at first.  Mmmm, naps.  It means making room in your life to be healthy.  You'll like it. 

Comments

[TP]

This is a fantastic post. I don't sleep enough, and it's no one's fault by my own. That makes me sad sometimes -- does it say something about my self-perception that I'm apparently unwilling to give myself the sleep that would be beneficial to me?

[Christina]

Sherry, I hope you had a nice weekend! I really like this post as well; I've known it to be true for some time, but I so often sacrifice sleep for other things (sometimes just as satisfying, other times not . . .). New resolution is to focus more on getting enough rest. I like to do some reading before sleeping. And I'm one of those people who usually can't fall asleep right away after the lights are off, so I usually lie there and think about my day, or else other things that have been on my mind. It really IS a good time to check in with myself.

[ML]

A pre-sleep ritual that's good for the spirit is to think of ten things that happened today or about the day that you are grateful for. If you believe in God, then you can thank Her/Him/It for these things. If you don't, thank the universe, life force, or just say thank you.