Sleep yourself Happy!

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This article comes about after over a week of non-stop work and lack of sleep (which also explains the lack of posts). Up until a day ago I was grumpy-Hani, who usually only appears at that certain time of the month but was making a stunning comeback for the past 10 days. Grumpy-Hani is usually accompanied by her faithful companion, Woe-is-me. Now let me tell you, neither of these two are any fun at all. 

And then last night I had the most glorious sleep. The kind that you go deep, you don't wake up in the middle of the night, you don't toss and turn (or you don't remember) and you wake up and your spirit just soars! Singing at the wonderfulness that is morning!

I kid you not. It was that kind of sleep. Of course the rest of my day went by like a song. In my Spanish class I felt awake, positive and alert. I remember thinking to myself, "something is missing" and realising that it's the feeling of sleepiness, sluggishness and general "UGH".

Now I consider myself pretty lucky in the sleep department (for the past 5 years at least). As soon as my head hits the pillow I'm out, but lately my sleep has been disturbed. Be it work, wine drinking, too much yerba mate, who knows? I haven't experimented enough (Ok, I kinda have but that's for another post) to know. And up until yesterday, I never thought to take my sleep seriously.

I mean, what's there to know? Get on bed, sleep, then wake up! But since having my recent sleep troubles and having a day like today, sleep is on my list of priorities. I mean, if getting good sleep can make waking up such a pleasurable experience, can make my day glide by, help me lose weight, can make me more creative, raise my immune system, can make me feel more positive and good, WHO WOULDN'T MAKE SLEEP A PRIORITY??

I mean, makes sense right??

So for now, I have decided to:

1. Get between 7-8 hours of good, restful sleep a night. I find that a good 6-7 hours is just as good as 8 hours. So my goal is to get deep, restful sleep rather than just more sleep.
2. Track my sleep. I have been tracking my sleep and moods each morning for a month now. I also track what I eat, weight, body fat and what workouts I do. 
3. Get off the computer an hour before sleepy time!

For more ways to improve your sleep you can read this: 17 Ways to Improve your sleep  and if you'd like to know more of the health benefits of sleep, read: 11 Surprising Health Benefits of Sleep. 

Meanwhile, how do you sleep at night? Leave me a comment!