I have a love-hate relationship with sleep. I either sleep too much or not at all. My whole life I have described myself as a night owl – at least that’s what I’ve always thought – I just feel my most productive at night.

 

The only problem is that the rest of the world seems to run on a different schedule. My ideal sleep schedule would be to fall asleep just before the sun rises, somehow get at least 8 hours of sleep while also waking up up at 8:00 am. Unfortunately, that isn’t possible. It’s not that I’m not a morning person, because I am, I absolutely love the mornings. As cliché as it sounds, I love to watch the world wake up and hear the birds outside, I love the peacefulness.

 

Usually, during the school term, I have a set schedule because I have to get up and go to school and that keeps me accountable. The problem is that this semester, I haven’t had to leave my house to get to school. That means that I’ve been sleeping at 3:00 in the morning, sometimes even 4:00 in the morning. And I realized that this sleep pattern wasn’t doing me any favors – I’ve been more tired, more grumpy, less productive, as well as less motivated and energized to get anything done. So this past week I decided to build a routine and I now have so much more time in the day to actually do things.

 

I then looked at my new schedule and decided that I would also find a way to build mindfulness into this new routine. So I downloaded an app that reminds me as soon as I wake up to ease into my day by being mindful of how I’m feeling, what I need to do, as well as reminding me that taking breaks is good, and that taking care of yourself is not a bad thing.

 

So… remember to take a break today and I’ll see you next week!