How often do you listen to your body? If you hear it talking to you, do you take any action that might be required? Earlier this week, I was listening and took action. I finished dinner early, a little after 5:00 pm. I was upstairs working on one of my books and I was yawning – a lot. My eyes were having problems focusing on what I was doing. I was making more than a couple of errors typing.
I needed sleep, yet it was before 7:00 pm. Should I take action, or not? How many times have I driven past this temporary perturbation in my time-life continuum and ended up getting a few good hours in spite of being tired? That night, I decided I would take advantage of the rack monster – succumb and go to bed early.
I was in bed a little before 7:00 pm. I don’t know how soon I fell asleep, but it happened earlier than normal. I didn’t have anything special first thing in the morning, so I left the alarm clock unset. I awoke and got out of bed around 10:00 am with fifteen hours of sleep. Once every several years I’ll allow bodily functions to awaken me during my sleep, but it is extremely rare.
We need sleep. It is when the repair cycle of our body operates. We can operate for many days straight without much sleep, but the lack of sleep is cumulative and will eventually get your attention, probably when you don’t want it to. There are ways to fake your short sleep cycles into awakening and feeling great. I’ll blog about that tomorrow.
When you are tired, listen to your body. Not doing so can put you at peril, not immediately, but it wears your immune system down and your level of protection is not as great as it could be.
Truly, like the saying the more you hate, the more you love.
Interesting comment. I’ve had to think about it a bit. Even had to erase my original reply. Hate is an emotion and sleep (and other functions your body is talking to you about) is physical. I consider the opposite of hate to be love – or, the absence of love is hate. So, in that context, there is an analogy, the more you hate, the more you need love. Thanks for that interesting perspective.