Sleep

Sleep and I have issues. I like it a lot. A little bit too much in fact.

I can trace the root of my problem back to the summer between my senior year and my "super" senior year of college. I got my first nursing job that summer and I work the 2-10 pm shift a lot. I often got home after 11 pm, so I was not very motivated to get up before 8 am or even later. It became worse the summer I worked night shifts. This habit has continued, even though I now work 6 am – 6 pm, except now I justify sleeping in because I worked hard the day before. I was doing better before Kevin and I were married, but then Kevin became my excuse. He now works the swing shift, so he has the same excuse I did four years ago for not getting out of bed.

After getting up at 9:30 and talking myself out of working out a few too many times, I have decided that this is an area I need to focus on. I firmly believe that we are much more productive if we go to bed and get up earlier. Plus, I don't need 9 + hours of sleep, and it can't be healthy that I get up at 5 on days I work and 9 on days I don't. While I am not ready to commit to getting up at 5 everyday, I don't think that a four hour difference is that healthy.

To help me achieve this goal for reals this time, I have incorporated it into my New Year's Resolutions, where I am accountable for reporting each day. My ultimate goal is to get up at 6:30 on my days off, but I plan to get to that point gradually. Right now my goal is to get up at 8 seven times. After I achieve this mini-goal, I get a song from i-tunes and I will start working on getting up at 7:55. I have decided that bribery might be the best option because then I have a reward that I am working towards. Plus, it will mostly be i-tunes songs with an occasional book added in, so it shouldn't break the bank.

Hopefully this time I will conquer this problem for good because not only will it make going to bed and getting up for work easier, as well as increasing productivity, but it will help me when I become a mom. Apparently babies don't sleep in, so if I am already in the habit, hopefully it will decrease my annoyance at getting up to take care of a baby or child in the early morning hours.