Life 5 years ago Want a Better Night's Rest? Me too!
Thank the heavens that I did not grow up in one of those households that made you feel bad for sleeping in.
You know, those families that make comments like “Oh! Look who decided to join us” at 12pm on a Saturday when you finally drag your sleepy eyes out into the main living room. Listen, I understand why and how we have been conditioned into a society that believes sleep is for the weak and don’t judge all of the early birds out there who are reading this.
But my parents would encourage us to sleep in to the point that they would be as quiet as a mouse in the kitchen until we opened our bedroom doors, often times spoiling us with breakfast past noon. Ahh the good ole days.
Over the years, I have gone in and out of being a morning riser. Whether it being circumstances outside of my control such as an early call time, a job start time or, more recently, having a newborn baby at home. Last week, Grant and I took a vacation just us two and on the first day of our trip I slept for 13 hours. I slept in until 12:30pm and then at 3:30pm I took another nap.
I haven’t slept well in so long that I forgot how much I love sleep.
Grant and I sleep with June’s monitor on the nightstand. Between pregnancy pains in 2018, having a newborn in the house for 2019 and now dealing with letting go of paranoia of the night stand monitor in 2020, we really need to get our sleep schedules under control. Don’t get me wrong, June is sleeping like a champ. Her parents? Not so much!
First…
I decided to tackle our sleep deprivation starting with our bedroom. There was something that felt off about the master bedroom. For lack of a better explanation, I just never felt clean going to bed. You know what I mean? I noticed a ton of dust particles always floating in the air. The vintage rug was collecting a ton of dust. I don’t know if you guys saw me post on social media but we pulled the rug out of the bedroom and we were pretty overwhelmed by the amount of dust it had collection. I decided to just leave the rug out for a while and see how it felt. The room already felt better, brighter and cleaner.
Secondly…
I wanted to change our bedding. We had gotten Boll & Branch bedding as part of a partnership back in 2019 and we put it in our guest room. My mom raved about how much she loved the bedding so much that she purchased Boll & Branch for our family home back in Texas.
When Grant and I went home for the holidays, we were shocked by how much better we slept on their sheets. I knew it was soft and we had laid on the guest bed a time or two, but I hadn’t slept multiple nights in a row on their bedding before. So, I reached out to Boll & Branch and they hooked us up with a fresh new set for the master bedroom! I decided to go with all white so the bed would feel nice and minimal, clean and fresh. You guys, I.love.this.bedding. I swear by it.
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Thirdly…
I set a bed time for Grant and myself. Okay, okay, there were definitely some exceptions when we go out to dinners with friends and what not. But if Grant and I are both home and we’re sitting on the couch watching TV, we have a lights out at 10:30pm rule now. It’s not always easy to stick to, but it’s a step in the right direction. I can fully function, happily so, with 6 hours of sleep. It takes me a solid hour to really wind down and fall asleep. June wakes up at 6:30am. If I’m able to get 8 hours, I am Wonder Woman. So setting a 10:30pm lights out gives me a fighting chance of landing somewhere between 6-8 hours.
Last but not least…
I think we have to move away from having the monitor in the room with us. I’m not quite sure how to tackle this one but it’s become an awful habit to wake up multiple times in the middle of the night to check on June. Grant and I currently take turns for who has it on their night stand and I have to tell you: the nights the monitor is on my side I get zero sleep. I’m constantly waking up to check on her. Are there any parents out there who have good tips on this? At what age should we ditch the monitor altogether? June is sleeping fabulously. If she needs us, she lets us know.
Are you a night owl or early riser? How many hours of sleep do you strive to get each night?
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