“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?” ~Ernest Hemingway

Dear Universe,

Having time off for the holidays has been great for several reasons.

I have caught up with family and friends.  I have caught up on general housekeeping stuff—like sorting clothes and paperwork.  I have gotten a chance to leisurely read and watch movies.  I have done a lot of work in preparation for the semester.

And I have slept.

I have slept so much that I sometimes wonder if my body is trying to go into hibernation mode and wake me up when it’s Spring,

The thing is for the weeks leading up to break I knew the one thing I was looking forward to was sleeping.  I was overworked, overtired and over not sleeping.

They say you can’t catch up on sleep that you’ve missed, but I am starting to think that is not true.

Besides keeping you in good spirits and leaving you looking refreshed, a good night’s sleep has lots of other benefits.  It helps your memory, stimulates your creativity, focuses your attention and lowers your stress.

Nothing surprising there.

I’m starting to wonder what will happen work starts again.  There is no way I can possibly sleep as much as I have.  Usually, I stay up late doing work, crash completely exhausted, then wake up several times in the night, my mind racing, before waking up early again.

And from talking to others, I know this is a common problem.  We rush around all day working, running errands, taking care of kids, cooking, cleaning and taming daily crises, hoping to just crash at night, but rarely do we get the sleep we need.

I want there to be a secret formula to ensure that I will fall asleep when I need to and wake up not a second earlier than I should.

Naturally I had to look into this.

Besides counting sheep (does that really work?) you can exercise, avoid naps (who has time for a nap?), stretch, meditate, make a to-do list for the next day (but then let those thoughts go), have a glass of warm milk or soak in a relaxing bath.

Don’t have time for all this?

Well, I’ve also heard there’s an app for that.  The app tracks your sleep cycles and lets you know the ideal time for you to sleep and wake up.  Upon waking, it informs you of how well you slept the night prior.  You can monitor your habits to see what you did differently on the days you slept well.

I am looking forward to trying it.

Otherwise, I may have to wait months before I am able to sleep soundly again.

Thank you for the much needed rest.

With Gratitude,

A