We are good sleepers in my family. My kids each napped well into their 5th year and each would go to sleep at bedtime with no complaints—even into their tween years.
I might not fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow, but I don’t have significant issues either getting to sleep or staying asleep as I know some other women do.
Stress and worries are sleep slayers, even for a good sleeper like me, so recently I had a little trouble. Sometimes I would go to bed because I felt tired and it was “bedtime,” but sleep eluded me.
If I ever woke in the night, which I usually did at some point because I have the bladder of a 42-year-old woman, I might lie in bed awake for a couple of hours before slipping back into sleep. Or even worse, my eyes would pop open around 4:00 a.m. The clock taunted me, reminding me, “You have to be up in two hours. If you don’t go back to sleep right now, you never will.”
What did I do? I fought back. I saw those hours as a gift of time. Here are some ways I’ve found to steal time to stretch the hours in my day:
- If I don’t feel tired at my normal bedtime, I don’t go to sleep. This used to bother me because I knew the extra hours I took at night could make me feel tired and sluggish for days to come. But now, the clock doesn’t rule me. I catch up on household chores or watch a movie or read a few chapters.
- Whenever I wake up, be it 3:45 a.m. or 5:30 a.m., I get up. I take it slowly. I brew coffee and read in the dark by only the light of my e-reader or a book light. By the time my “normal” wake-up time comes, I may have stolen two hours of relaxing me-time. That’s right, I’m adding time to my day. Anxiety and worry are trying to rob me, but I’m fighting back.
- I fight the urge to sleep in too late. I’m naturally an early-riser, so even if I’m getting less sleep at night, I go ahead and get my day started at the normal time. This is probably a weird early-bird quirk, but sleeping in makes me feel like I’ve wasted the best part of the day. So I get up and get going, perhaps getting a load of laundry started or even cleaning a bathroom while I’m up getting the kids off for the day. When my son gets on the bus at 8:15 a.m., I have already crossed tasks off my list. I’ve stolen time.
I can’t stop problems from coming my way, but I can control my mindset. Once I stopped thinking about what might happen if I never got back to a normal sleep schedule, I began to sleep better! But honestly? I sort of miss my early morning me-time. I don’t miss it enough to set my alarm for 4:30 a.m., but maybe when it happens again, I’ll reach over to my bedside table and grab my book instead of letting the concern that I’ll never sleep again make the problem even worse.
I’m taking it one night at a time.
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” —Matthew 6:34, NIV
In addition to juggling family responsibilities, Jennifer Donovan teaches a preschool class at her Bible study and middle school girls at her church, reads as much as she can, reviews what she reads at 5 Minutes for Books and wishes she wrote more on her personal blog, Snapshot.