31 Goals in 31 Days – Day 13 – Night Night

I am a night owl by nature, but after having children, have been forced to wake up early.  Now there is much to do in the morning, and the days of sleeping in are a fond memory of mine.

The problem lies in the fact that I like to work at night, and get a lot accomplished then, so it’s hard for me to shut down and go to bed.  I’m always thinking about “just one more thing” that could be done. (Now, don’t get the wrong idea, I don’t work every night!)

This, of course, makes for a difficult morning, especially when I am waking up 30 minutes earlier to have my quiet time with the Lord.  So, today I find myself tired.  Partly because I am having a bit of an allergy attack (thanks to the 20 degree above normal temperatures) combined with a caffeine headache (I had a diet coke yesterday with caffeine), and partly because I have not gotten enough sleep.

A long time ago, I tried to calculate how many hours of sleep I personally need to function at optimum performance.  Unfortunately, according to my best calculation, I need about 9 hours.  Now, any mothers know that 9 hours is a bit unrealistic, but it’s a goal to shoot for in any case.

So, today’s goal is to get more sleep, which means to implement a bedtime.  I like to read before bedtime, so I’ll incorporate that as well.  So, starting today, I’ll start getting ready for bed at 9 pm, then read to 9:30, and then lights out.  This will give me roughly 8 hours of sleep (assuming 30 minutes to fall asleep, and waking at 6 am), which is better than I am getting now.  I’ll re-evaluate in a week or so to see if this number should be increased or changed.  Of course, the exception to this is the one day a week I do my direct sales home shows, which puts me home around 9:30, so I’ll skip reading on those days and just head straight for bed.

Now I think I’ll go back to bed for a bit…night night

To your success,

Dr. Laura

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