Imagine it’s 9 PM and you’re dead tired. Normally you go to bed around 10:30 PM, but tonight your eyelids feel like they weigh forty pounds. Your head is screaming as well, so any form of thought turns into just gibberish.
You blink your eyes for a second. When your eyes open back up, ten minutes have passed by. “Yeah” you tell yourself, “Its time to go to bed now.” The moment you close your eyelids a spell happens. You are in a deep silent slumber. You haven’t sleep this good since being an infant.
In the midst of the peaceful rest, all of a sudden you feel a sudden jerk. Your head slides off the stack of pillows you feel asleep on. Instantly you want to switch positions to get back to that restful sleep.
You re-position the pillows. You have no clue how long you’ve been sleeping. You try to take a glance to see the alarm clock but can’t find it. “Ok”, you tell yourself. “If I open my eyes too wide there’s a chance I will wake up. “
You have no desire to wake up so you delay looking. Too bad the other side of your brain is telling you that you need to figure out exactly how much more time you have to sleep. Who’s going to win this battle?
The side that tells you to find the exact time wins out. Your memory reminds you that your cell phone is on the nightstand near by. You instantly swipe the screen to reveal the time and what do you see…….IT’S ONLY 1 AM!!!! You’ve only been sleeping for a measly 4 hours!
Have you ever had one of those nights? Aren’t they just the worst? It’s one of the worst feelings in the world to think you that you have slept for 9+ hours, but in reality it’s only been a few. The second punch to the gut occurs once you realize how much more time you got and your body decides to completely wake up.
SLEEPING IN A DIFFERENT TIME ZONE
I’m currently on a trip to Thailand. Thailand is about 11 hours ahead of my normal time zone. As a business developer, I use to travel all around the world. Normally it would take about two days for me to adapt to the time zone.
I’m not sure what it is about this trip, but my body is taking extra long to adjust to the time zone. I have not had a normal 8-hour sleep night since arriving. Day One was a series of 3-4 hour naps. Days Two through Three involved me waking up early in the morning and not going back to sleep.
You see when traveling your body wants to stay in your normal time zone. The key to getting past the time difference hump is to force your body to stay awake for one full normal day. Once nighttime hits, THEN you go to sleep. I thought I had finally gotten to that stage last night. But nope, here I am at 4 AM typing up this blog entry.
SET UP A SLEEP HAVEN
I thought my environment was perfectly set up. I had the room completely dark with the AC on full blast. Even during the daytime, I had a full day’s worth of physical activity at a beach. The perfect set up for a good night’s rest.
You see I know how important a good night’s rest can be. A great day all starts with the proper amount of rest. Doctor’s recommend eight hours of sleep a night. In my experience I definitely noticed a difference in my body and overall well-being when having between 7-9 hours of sleep.
It’s a shame that we let work and stress get in our way of daily sleep. If we all just relaxed more and got what our body asks for, we all would be living better lives. Our bodies love it when we get proper rest. When working out and following a great nutrition plan, you want to make sure you’re doing whatever it takes to maximize the results.
SOOTHING SOUNDS
Hmmm, the night isn’t completely over yet. I hear a deep rain storming brewing up outside. Hearing soothing sounds always seem to help with sleep. Especially naturally occurring sounds. I’m in a tropical paradise with all types of animal noises in the background. The rain will only make it even more tranquil.
Maybe I can still sneak in an hour of good sleep before getting up in the morning. Make sure you’re doing all you can to stay healthy. Do yourself a favor. Get your sleep!!
