Erratic Sleep Patterns = Public Enemy Number One
I fell asleep on the couch again last night. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but there… it’s out in the open. I started out o.k. I was in bed by 1 a.m. Somehow though, the silence became deafening and I got up to watch t.v. and boom… I eventually fall asleep on the couch. Without getting too much into the depths of my childhood, let just say that not wanting to go to bed at night is something that I’ve struggled with for a long time. When you’re a kid you don’t have much choice in the matter. When you get out onto your own though, you have more options. You can stay up as long as you like. You can watch television. You can surf the internet. When you were in college there were probably always friends that were also up. No one to say otherwise. No one to tell you to go to bed. Woohoo! You’re out on your own and footloose and fancy free. Slowly but surely this builds into a habit that really can mess with your brain. Literally.
This is what I’ve slowly come to realize. Erratic sleep patterns literally mess with your brain. Chronically not getting the restorative REM sleep that you need affects your moods. If affects your outlook on life. Things seem worse than they really are. This has got to stop for me. It has got to become Public Enemy Number One if I’m ever to move forward and create the kind of change in my life that I want.
So what now? Well, hopefully just admitting that this is a habit that I must marshall all of my resources to change is a good start. I’ve known it for some time. (One of the benefits of this blog is that I’m able to look back and see what I’ve posted on this previously). I’m not certain what to do next. Maybe change comes slowly, and breaking habits that you’ve had for a long time takes alot of “two steps forward, one step back”. I know that Tony Robbins says that change can happen in an instant. Maybe the final change does happen in an instant. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be alot of starting an stopping beforehand. This habit has been on my radar to change for a while now. Maybe I’ve had just enough of feeling bad to make the change permanent.