I've always been a good sleeper. I inherited that ability from my dad. He could fall asleep anywhere, anytime.
I can remember when I was a kid, that he would come home during his lunch hour and he would eat the lunch my mom made him, then he would lay down in his recliner and take a nap before he had to go back to work. He would instantly start snoring. Sometimes we would jump into his lap and he would wake up and look at us with bewilderment and then he would go right back to sleep again.
My mom who always had a hard time sleeping would get so mad at him that he could sleep like that. That soundly, That deeply. That restfully. Like it was his fault! My dad would tell her that he could sleep that soundly because he slept the sleep of the innocent. Without malice, without worry, without strife, without stress. I think that really pissed my mom off. Probably because she took it to mean that she couldn't sleep because she had malice, worry, strife and stress. I don't think my dad meant it that way, but I'm sure my mom took it that way.
I sleep the sleep on the innocent as well. I can lay down at night and turn off the light and my body knows it's time to go to sleep. The bad thing is that they can lower the lights at a movie theater and my body thinks it's time to go to sleep. I can start reading a book and my body thinks it's time to go to sleep. My body thinks it's way innocent-er than it really is!
My sister and my mom both still experience bouts of insomnia, while I sleep soundly through the night. I also love naps during the day. I normally can't nap unless it's the weekend but I can lay down around 2pm on a Saturday and catch a 20 minute nap or a 1 hour nap and awaken refreshed and ready.
I've been reading the book Thrive by Arianna Huffington for my online book club, From Left to Write.
In the book Arianna talks about how important it is to get a good nights sleep. It can help you to deal with stress better and is a great aid to losing weight. Sleep brings lots of good benefits with it.
I wish I knew the secret to being able to get a good nights sleep. If I knew the secret I would definitely share it with my mom and my sister and with anyone else that has trouble sleeping. I just know that for me sleep comes easily and in fact I very rarely dream, or maybe I dream and just don't remember them, but when I wake in the morning or after an afternoon nap I am well rested and ready to face the day.
Do you sleep the sleep of the innocent or do you toss and turn and sleep fitfully?
This post was inspired by Thrive by Arianna Huffington who challenges women unplug and sleep more to create a balanced life. Join From Left to Write on March 19th as we discuss Thrive. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.
I envy you your sleep, be it innocent or otherwise. I fall asleep easily and cease to exist for about 3 hours. After that I get 1 to 2 hours of fitful sleep that often feels like more work than sleep. I usually end up saying to hell with it and get up. I easily nap through the day and reading? Reading has become a nap interrupted by paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteBTW that is one of the great advantages of a kindle. I get in my comfy chair, prop the kindle on a small pillow in my lap and start reading. Sure enough I doze off and nap blissfully, when I wake up the kindle is there still safely in my lap with right on the page where I dozed off. When I try that with a book, I drop the book and it wakes me up. I read a small but thick paperback about year or so ago. I had to forcefully hold the book open to the correct page. I would fall asleep and the damned book shot out of my hands about three feet from my chair and woke me with a start. The wonders of the golden years.
Naps are so good I am surprised they are not taxed.
Even as a child I slept well while my sister Lisa was was plagued by bad dreams and she still is. Naps...oh I love naps. I think it would increase more productivity tremendously if I could take a nap at work, but that is frowned upon!
DeleteYou know with the Kindle I find that people either love them or hate them, there is no middle ground. I download books to my Kindle app on my phone but then if I pick up my phone to entertain myself I am distracted by the tons of great games I can play, like Words with Friends or Wordfeud, so I never read what I download. To really read I need to turn off the TV, the computer, the phone and close my door. I love uninterrupted reading!
Ha! Taxing naps...please don't put ideas into their heads!
One of the advantages of the Kindle PaperWhites, they are reading machines only. You can theoretically access the internet with them but it is so painful that you seldom do. There are limited games, but again they are pretty miserable. When I get the PaperWhite out, all I do is read. The Kindle Fires however are more like your phone. It is a tablet with a reading app on it. I find myself often getting distracted with it. I like both. But for reading the PaperWhite is the ticket.
DeleteSome day...when I have some disposable income I may just get myself a Kindle, but there are always so many other things I would rather have. Right now I'm feeling an Iwanna post for an Emerald ring. I know how you love those Iwanna posts I used to do :)
DeleteRegarding your Mom and sister, perhaps there's a link between their active metabolism that keeps them slim, and sleep disorder.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have no problem with the 7-8 hours night sleep, thank God. It is the nap during the day which is problematic.I don't seem to be able to wake up after an hour or so; the sleeping just goes on and distorts my daily schedule, so I try to give it up. It's a pity, as I sometimes really need that nap.
DUTA, I have always thought that, that their energy level is so high that the never turn off their minds and that is why they can't sleep. When I have coffee on weekends with my mom and sister I just sit there and enjoy my coffee and conversation and they are constantly getting up and looking out the window or cleaning something, that perhaps is why they are thinner than I with almost no effort on their part. You are wise beyond your years DUTA!
DeleteI can remember as a child that I would take a nap and somehow when I woke up I felt it was a new day and I wanted breakfast, so I can see how it would distort your daily schedule!
I toss and turn for a while before I fall asleep. My 5 year old still climbs into bed with us in the middle of the night (when my husband and I are too sleepy to carry him back to bed). That doesn't help with getting a good night's rest.
ReplyDeleteYep, sleeping with a child will do that...lol! I know that I also am lucky in that I can be woken up out of a sound sleep and I am instantly awake and alert and then the second I close my eyes again I am instantly sound asleep. That was a great blessing when my kids were little.
DeleteI'm a sleeper too! When the kids were little and slept in our bed my husband complained that they kept him up. My feeling was that he just want that tired! I need 7 1/2 to 8 hours and then feel great. And I'm still able to roll over and go back to sleep if awakened. But I don't nap well. I usually wake up from them in a bad mood.
ReplyDeleteI think it's so great to be able to sleep well. I have one or two nights with insomnia in my life and it was horrible! It's especially great when you need all that sleep to deal with having little kids.
DeleteI'm so jealous! I'm a terrible sleeper and an even worse napper. I wonder if you aren't on to something though. Insomnia runs in my family with my brother being the worst. His daughter is just like him - up all night and even has headaches like me when I was a teen.
ReplyDeleteFor me exercise helps and getting off social media an hour before bed.
Wow, I didn't realize so many people had trouble sleeping. I guess I'm pretty lucky then!
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