Five Reasons Why Sleep is Important

I've managed to scrape an hour this morning to write and I wanted to write this post for all you parents out there.  A 'scraped' hour means I'm writing this with a three year old on my lap, who is poking his beany toy duck in my face - apparently it's giving me a kiss because it loves me.  How sweet!

I am actually exhausted at the moment.  I don't think I've ever been this drained in all my life.  My children seem to be draining every last drop of energy from me and I don't know how much more I can take.  I can't think straight!  

I know I'm not the only person in the world that feels like this, in fact I'd be surprised if most parents don't feel the same, and I suppose it's in the job description.  I know people with one child who feel drained and I have three, so I don't even think it matters how many children you have.

So, my situation is that my children barely sleep.  I make jokes about them being stalkers because always one of them is awake, checking on me or lurking around the corner.  

My eldest child is ten years old. I get her to go to bed around 8:30-9pm along with my eight year old son.  My daughter doesn't sleep well so she is up and out of bed several times to go to the toilet or have a drink (our bathroom is down stairs too).  She is never asleep before midnight!  

My three year old son is an early riser.  I have just had to change his bed time from 7pm, to 7:30-8pm and he still gets up between 6-7am.  If my eight year old son goes to bed and decides to be silly getting up and down from his bunk-bed then he can wake the youngest up and they carry on until 10:30pm-ish.  Then they still get up the same time.  When my youngest wakes up, he used to wake me up, but he has started waking his brother.  This is fine... Until they start arguing loudly at 7am in the morning!  My poor neighbours must think we are mental in this house!  

Sleep is so important to me.  Don't get me wrong, if I get too much I feel terrible, 7-8 solid hours really makes me feel refreshed and ready to face the world.  Here are my five top reasons why sleep is important.

1)  Sleep makes you feel good.

Everyone wants to feel good about themselves once in a while, and having a good sleep makes you feel good.  There's nothing worse than feeling tired, not being able to control the yawns.  It doesn't make you feel good and ready for the world!

2)  Sleep helps you concentrate.

If you work, or even if you don't, a good sleep helps with your concentration.  Mistakes are likely to be made if you haven't had a good sleep as you can't think what you are doing.

3)  Sleep can control your mood.

I don't know about you, but I'm in such a stinking mood if I don't get enough sleep.  As the day goes on, I can hear myself becoming more and more irrational.  This is no good!  I can't stop it, I'm just a bystander of the unreasonable behaviour as the true me has no energy to fight over this ridiculousness the tiredness lets out.  

4)  Sleep can make you a better parent.

Sorry if you're not a parent, I suppose in general it can make you a better person.  My example is that if I get enough sleep, I have so much more energy and I become a better parent.  Instead of sitting around, not being bothered to do anything, a good sleep can make all the difference.  I can be bothered to listen properly to their reading, play games, go for a walk, and even tidying up or decluttering - I suppose this sets a good example to the children, or others too? 

5)  Sleep to survive.

Apart from all of these points, sleep is important to our survival.  A person cannot survive for long without sleep, and lack of sleep can result in all sorts of illnesses or health issues.  I wanted to link here to an article I read recently '11 Surprising Health Benefits of Sleep' (accessed 13.05.15).  You should give this a read!

Do you have a good or bad sleep pattern?

Are there any health issues you are aware of due to lack of sleep?

Do you think you are a different person if you don't have enough sleep?

Do your children disturb your sleep?  

Do you think you have enough sleep?

It is important to care about yourself and your own health, and sleep is such an important factor.  Lack of sleep is actually a trigger of my OH's epileptic seizures as he has a really bad sleep pattern most nights.  

I was a little on the fence of whether to post regarding the general election.  I have decided that I will be writing a political blog post later in the week, and it will be live by Saturday.  

Take care and sleep yourself well! 

#bigfatlinky