Watch you smile while you are sleeping … because you’re probably awake.
A study released by the National Sleep Foundation this week finally advertises the problem I’ve been having. “nearly 70 per cent of women say they frequently have a problem sleeping, and 60 per cent only get a good night’s sleep a few nights a week.” Well who would have guessed? The study shows that an excessive amount (72%) of working mothers suffer from insomnia while 74% of stay-at-home mothers suffered. This is a crazy statistic because that means that only 1/4 of the female American population is sleeping enough and/or getting a good night’s sleep!
Do you wonder why this is happening? I don’t. I know quite a few moms who are the first in their house to get up and the last person to go to bed. They get ready for their day, get their children ready for the day, send them off (or hold on to them) and then they work - whether it be at home or at an “office.” They pick up the children on the way home, make dinner once they are home and then the chores start; laundry, dishes, dusting, etc. They work until they’re exhausted and then fall into bed to a restless night’s sleep. What good is that!?
“Women need to make sleep a priority,” he advises. “They need to decide the following: ‘I’m feeling lousy in the daytime and the only way for me to feel better is I have to sleep more.’ And they have to make a real attempt to sleep more.”
This week is National Sleep Awareness Week and so I urge you to look at your own sleeping habits. Are you going to bed at 1am just to get up 5 hours later to start your day? If so, think about changing these habits to get at least an hour more sleep. Go to bed a 1/2-hour earlier tonight … see how that makes you feel. Half an hour won’t disrupt your day at all (you probably wouldn’t even notice it), but it will give your body a little extra time to get rested.
I also encourage you to check out how to make sleep work for you so that you are getting the best of the little sleep you are probably getting.
sleep, sleeping, stress, women, National Sleep Foundation, Sleep Awareness Week
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