Sleeping Like a Baby

I have always found that expression strange because I thought babies don’t really sleep that well and are always waking up during the night. Ok, I’m not a parent so I don’t know anything about babies but it still seems an odd thing to say.

Since returning from my holiday I have been sleeping much better. I am tired at night and so I’ve been falling asleep fairly quickly. I’ve been getting less than the required/desired 8 hours a night but I’m not feeling too badly during the day.

I have been quite stressed during the last weeks which normally would mean very little sleep but for some reason that wasn’t the case. I got some very bad news on the first morning back from my holiday but managed to sleep for around 3 hours that afternoon. It’s strange but there you go.

I’m trying to improve my diet to see if that doesn’t help things a little as well. My first goal is to lose 5 kilos but ultimately to lose 20. I will blog about my progress in upcoming posts.

Holiday Sleep

I just got back from my 10 day holiday and have never slept better. I didn’t sleep a lot though. I would go to sleep at midnight and wake up around 7:30 or 8am. That’s not too bad I guess. I was tired every morning when I woke up but I was travelling and sightseeing so I couldn’t sleep in. Most days were spent driving around or walking for hours on end. I was exhausted at the end of each day. I generally arrived back at the hotel at between 10 and 11pm. I would have a shower and then go straight to bed. Most nights I was asleep within minutes and would sleep soundly through the night. I think if I’d slept more then I wouldn’t have been so tired at night and it would have taken me longer to get to sleep.

This just goes to show that the more physical exercise I do during the day, the more likely I am to sleep well. Most days I was out doing stuff from 10am to 10pm. Most of the things I was doing were physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, shopping or driving.

It is surprising how tiring it is driving. I don’t know why but I soon as I get out of the city, driving on country roads, I get sleepy. I really struggle to keep my eyes open. I stop regularly in that situation and drink energy drinks but they don’t help. After a day of driving I am still sleepy and find I drift off to sleep easily.

I’m back at home now and am back to sleeping at 1 or 2am. I am falling asleep quickly though and sleeping through the night. I just hope that will continue.

Buy Organic Products and News

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Bed Keeping You Up?

After a long day dealing with the stress of modern life, most people are happy to finally get to bed and relax. They just want to get a good nights sleep before starting another busy day. If things don’t go to plan and you end up tossing and turning then you might find that you become even more stressed. You’ll then end up with very little sleep and you’ll be tired and agitated the following day.

There are many natural remedies to help cure insomnia. These might involve exercise, drinking herbal teas or warm milk. A less obvious cure can be found in your bed. If your bed is uncomfortable then it is only natural that you won’t sleep as well as you could. Mattresses don’t last forever and even a good mattress might only last 10 years. People forget this and then don’t notice when their bed loses it firmness. If you bed is more than 10 years old then consider replacing it. If your bed was low quality to start with then you might need to replace it after 5 years. Quality is important so if you have to pay an extra few hundred dollars for something good then do it, you won’t regret it.

You should also look at the condition of your pillows. Not all pillows are made alike and cheap pillows can lose their shape and firmness quickly. If your pillows have seen better days then get rid of them. Buy the best quality pillows you can afford. I’ve tried buying cheap pillows but they don’t last long. Remember the saying ‘buy cheap, buy twice’. Buy quality and you will be more comfortable, you’ll sleep better, and you will probably save money in the long run.

To Drink or Not to Drink

When you’ve had a few drinks after a big night out you might find that you can’t sleep. Even if it is 2 or 3 in the morning and you are feeling exhausted. The few drinks you had made you a little tipsy and a little tired but sleep still eludes you. Sound familiar?

This is a common type of insomnia, one caused by alcohol, but one which has a very simple cure. Alcohol can make you feel tired but at the same time it stimulates your mind enough to prevent you from sleeping. Drinking before you go to bed is one of the worst things you can do if you want to sleep well.

So what is the cure? Well you could simply cut out alcohol completely. This would prevent this kind of insomnia and help your liver at the same time. However, if you enjoy the odd drink then you might want to consider the type of alcohol you consume as well as when you are drinking and how much you are drinking.

If you have a drink just before going to bed then there will be a significant amount of alcohol still in your blood stream. This should be avoided. If you want to drink then try to have something in the early evening and preferably with a meal. Quantity is also important. Stick to one or two standard drinks and you should be fine. Any more than that and you will be setting yourself up for a sleepless night. The last thing to look at is what you are drinking. The best drink to have if you don’t want to affect your sleep is wine. Either red or white wine, it shouldn’t matter. These are better options than beer or spirits which are more likely to keep you awake.

Count Those Sheep!

It is a bit of a joke that counting sheep will help people to sleep. It is pretty stupid to imagine sleep and count them as the pass by in your thoughts. Can someone really fall asleep by counting these woolly animals? As ridiculous as it may sound, counting sheep can be a natural cure for insomnia. It has nothing to do with sheep, of course, but more to do with the rhythm of counting.

When you can’t fall asleep, it is often because your mind is racing, thinking about so many things which are going on in your life. You might be thinking about work, you family, an appointment you have, what you will eat for dinner, there are so many different possibilities. With all this going on in your mind it is no wonder you can’t sleep. You need to find a way to calm down and clear your mind.

Counting sheep is a way for you to forget about everything which you would normally be thinking about. Think about sheep, or any animal of your choice, and imagine them running by in front of you. Concentrate on them going by one by one. You might be surprised to find that this will relax you enough for you to peacefully drift off to sleep.

The Long Sleep

Well, not that long sleep!

I’m going on holiday tomorrow for 10 days, yay! I’m going to be driving around south west France before crossing over to Spain. The plan for my time away is the sleep, relax, read, eat, swim at the beach, and sleep. Oh, and I suppose I’ll be doing lots of driving too but that’s ok, that comes under relaxing. I love driving and really miss it seeing I don’t have a car at the moment. I have hired a car with full insurance so that won’t cause any stress either. Bliss…

Mondayitis

Mondayitis has struck again. I didn’t want to get up early this morning so I didn’t. I stayed in bed until 11am. That’s pretty bad considering I have bucket loads of work to do. I didn’t sleep the whole time, I was probably doing more thinking than sleeping. I was feeling depressed and tired.

Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing with my life. Six months ago I started working for myself. I work at home creating and managing a number of websites. They are all my own sites so it’s important that I work hard on adding content, submitting them to directories, and other marketing efforts. After six months I’m only earning $200 a month. That is pretty depressing. My goal was to be earning $100 per month by the end of December and I times I think I will reach that easily but today I was thinking I am wasting my time. It is difficult when you work and work and work knowing that you won’t see any results for months to come. With the way the search engines work, you have to do what you think is right then wait for a few months to see the results. If you were wrong then all the work was for nothing. If you were doing the right thing all that time then you’ll start earning a few dollars. It’s a strange way to work.

I am starting to see some results with a couple of sites I started early in the year. I guess I’ll have to be patient with my newer sites and just keep working on them and hoping for the best. Maybe once I start earning with the newer sites then I’ll be able to sleep better and Mondayitis will be gone for good.

Lazy Sunday

I slept in both yesterday and today till 10am. Even so, I was still very tired and didn’t want to get out of bed. I had an appointment so I had to but I’m sure I wouldn’t have woken up before midday if I hadn’t set my alarm. It’s 10:30pm now and I feel tired but I know I won’t be able to sleep. I’ll be happy if I can be in bed before 1am.

I’ve been going to bed later and later for the last 4 or 5 days. Last night I didn’t go to bed until 3am. I started 3 blogs last week and have been tweaking them and submitting them to directories. I want to get this done so I can’t start to focus on writing rather than settling up the blog. I think it is all done now and hopefully I’ll settle into a better routine next week.

Same Again

After a couple of late nights I decided to go to bed early. It was 12:30 when I turned off the light. I was very tired but couldn’t sleep. I think I tossed and turned for and hour and a half or more. I don’t know why. I was thinking too much I think. Thinking about my work and what still needs doing.

I work using a to do list – Remember the Milk. It helps me keep track of what needs doing and I like being able to tick things off as they get done. The problem is that I am constantly reminded when things don’t get done. There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to everything I want to do. So I spend the evenings lying in bed thinking about that and about other things. I often think about what I could do to improve my websites and I have lots of ideas for new sites and new blogs.

I should take this advice to help me to stop thinking about things too much. I think that is a big contributing factor to my sleep problems.