Episode 34: Sleep.. or lack thereof

I have been getting an average of probably 5-4 hours of sleep a night lately.  Down from my usual 7-8.  I am beginning to feel it.  I have been reading a few studies lately about how sleep loss can affect weight loss.

One article says that sleeping less affects weight loss because you are more likely to drink caffeine to keep yourself awake and hit up the donuts or chocolate for a quick sugar rush.  Another article says that when you sleep you produce hormones that hormones that control appetite and metabolism that are required for healthy weight loss.  It wasn't a matter of what foods you ate, or how you ate them, according to this study, because in their fieldwork, they discovered that if you sleep less, you actually eat less too, but you still gain weight.

Getting a bit of shut eye is a bit difficult for me lately.  I want to stay up and talk or watch videos.  My eyes get droopy and my body relaxes, but my mind, for the most part will stay active and alert enough to hold a conversation, or comprehend a video.  I push the barriers of mental alertness until that too finally crashes and I may even drift off mid-sentence.  Even as I close my eyes, I fall quickly into very strange dreamettes. Snippets of dreams, and as my mind tries to struggle to stay alert, I will blend both dream world and real world for some.. very strange conversations.

I will try to catch up to sleep this weekend, but with lesson planning and some reading I want to do, not to mention the myriad events on SL and other (wonderful) distractions, I'm not sure how much rest I will actually get.

Is it worth it to stay up so late?  Emotionally, mentally I can say definitively yes.  Physically though my body is going to revolt soon.  I just hope it's not during class.

Love and lollipops to all. I hope you have a wonderful everything!

ToryLynn

Episode 28: Exhaustion

Not sleeping. Probably not eating enough. Need to start working out. Too tired to really do much. In academic conferencing all day.  Brain not functioning.  Coffee reboot not helping. Hope I don't blue screen today.  Meh...

Episode 25: Hush

My first alarm clock goes off at 4, gently waking me up if I happen to be in the right part of REM.  This morning, I was, and it was singing love songs by the Beatles for me.  I hit snooze, reluctantly, and opened my eyes to the darkness of my bedroom, AH breathing deeply beside me as he slept through the alarm.  All I could hear was his breathing and my CPAP machine, telling me that I continued to breathe.  The wooshy sound of my own breath, helped along by a force of air that keeps me from snoring (and loudly, I might add) was relaxing, and my mind became peaceful and let go.

I fall into dream quickly, and anybody who has ever heard me fall into these dreams knows that I kinda talk in my sleep (at least, just as I am falling asleep), so it wasn't surprising when I heard myself mumbling, though I have no idea what I was saying.  Fortunately, I think AH slept through it but I wonder what causes me to do this.  I think, most of the time, that as I sleep, as I dream, I am talking to someone.  This morning's conversation was with a close friend, but if you asked me what I was dreaming about, I couldn't tell you.  All I know is that I was sitting across a table from him drinking coffee and enjoying a deep conversation, and answering questions aloud, because I could hear my voice being used in the awake world.  It was strange, but also rather oddly comforting.  In my dream, the conversation lasted hours.  In the real world, I had to get up an hour later.  I don't remember what was discussed, I don't remember if there was anything more than talking, but I do remember that I woke up an hour later, not realizing that I had hit snooze on my alarm clock 3 times, but feeling better rested and at peace.

So, now I am up with my granola and yogurt and coffee ready to face the world for another day, happy that I have friends to talk to... even if I am just talking to them in my sleep.

So, a rather thoughtful blog today about nothing incredibly important. I'm kind of rambly, but I am happy nonetheless.  I hope all of you are too.

ToryLynn