My kids go back to school this week and it’s time to adjust our schedule. I don’t know about you, but getting my kids enough sleep is a huge priority for me. If they don’t get enough sleep, they are usually really grumpy and then everyone’s stressed and the kids are often late for school. Our morning time as a family is awful when we don’t get the sleep we need, including me.
Have you ever noticed that if you don’t get enough sleep, you don’t feel that great and you don’t have the energy you’d like to have? Have you ever noticed yourself snapping at your kids because you’re just too tired to deal with things well?
Let’s check it out. We’ll start with you and in a future post I’ll share how I was able to help my kids get enough sleep, happily.
Do you get enough sleep?
What is “enough sleep” for you?
Does the quality of your sleep affect your family, the quality your family home evenings, and the quality of your scripture study? You bet!
Last January, it became clear that getting more sleep needed to become a priority in my life. At the time I was regularly staying up late (for me), going to bed between 11 and 1. And 6am came awfully soon. Chronic sleep deprivation was just part of my lifestyle and I thought I was doing okay, considering everything I was juggling.
Then a variety of things happened all at once and I became curious to know if getting more sleep would help me …
- drive in peace because I wasn’t struggling to stay awake
- interact with my family more happily throughout the day
- have higher quality family home evenings and scripture study times
- increase my energy
- support my body in losing weight
- make my life more beautiful in general.
I decided to do the following simple awareness experiment, which I later helped my kids do:
- I set my intention: to become aware of how many hours of sleep I was getting per night, how I generally felt throughout a typical day, and how to sleep to support me in feeling my best.
- I got a piece of paper and a pencil and put it by my bed right beside my alarm clock.
- Every night right before I turned off the light, I would write down
-What time I had gotten up that day
-Calculate how many hours I had slept the night before
-A short note about how I felt that day. I’d write if I noticed that I got sleepy or if I felt concerned about falling asleep while driving or if I felt irritable with my family or whatever came to mind. - Then I wrote down what time I was going to bed so I could make notes for the next day.
- I experimented with different bedtimes and wake times for a couple of weeks, adjusting as I noticed patterns until I felt confident that I had a good idea how much sleep my body needs right now.
Once I experienced how much sleep is “enough” for me, how good I feel when I get enough sleep, and how much better my relationships are when I feel good, I was hooked! Now I regularly prioritize my sleep and love how it makes me feel.
And, yes, it absolutely helps me with my family relationships!
For those who have serious sleep issues, please consider prayerfully selecting and working with a professional to get help. Doing the above exercise will provide valuable information for you and a professional, should you choose to work with one. Also, search out other ways to help your body relax and rejuvenate like deep breathing, yoga (even 10-20 minutes can really help!), relaxing in the bathtub, using high-quality essential oils, and taking leisurely walks in a beautiful place outside.
With more sleep, or at least good ways to relax, you will enjoy more …
Happy Home Evenings!
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