To sleep or not to sleep...

That is the question.
Whether 'tis funner* for the mind to endure
The witty banter of Netflix
Or to take solace in the slumberings
[...]
Of sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub...

But I digress.

(*Funner is not a word. Don't try and use it in a sentence. But Shakespeare tweaked words and outright made them up, so creative license is taken.)

It's been one month and my resolution is, like any resolution, a work in progress.

Week one: Smashing success! Until the weekend. When we had friends from out of town.

Week two: Mostly smashing success! Until the weekend. Then we were out of town and Little Miss slept in the same room as us...love her; don't love what she does to my sleep sometimes.

Week three: A smashed success¡ At least I got a couple nights in... And then we got to the weekend...which I spent with my sister. And if you remember, the night owl thing runs in the family on the female side, so that, along with the fact that we hadn't seen each other in a while, plus the layer of us both having small munchkins...well...you get the picture. But nevermind! Onto:

Week four: A "crunch" success: i.e. it was the biggest week for my students (big ol' solo/ensemble festival at the end of this one), so some nights were awesome. And some weren't. But the weekend was spot-on and early, in fact! (I was plumb tuckered out.)

Meanwhile, I did learn a few things:

1. The SleepBot app is pretty slick. The hubby found it a while ago and I used it for *almost* the entirety of this resolution (so far). It gives you the ability to track motion and sound (so I can see just how disturbed and disturbing my sleep actually is). Plus it gives you fun graphs of your trends. And when I say fun, I mostly just mean nerdy/keep-me-honest graphs. My trends are as follows:

• I sleep on average about 8 hours. (Hey! That's pretty good, considering I want 9. Not too shabby.) Unfortunately, it's neck-and-neck with the 7 hour sleep mark... I think I can do better though. 
• I tend to go to sleep somewhere between 12-2am. (Well, I'd say given my bedtime curfew, that's probably fairly reasonable. And the long-term looks to be more 12am based than 2am. Small victories here!)
• I tend to be awoken by small child around 9 am almost every day. I can work with that.

2. Even though I tended to drag out my bedtime curfew, because I had set one, I was much more aware of that fact. Was this a good thing? Undecided. On the one hand, I'm more aware. On the other hand...I feel guilty. On the other other hand (I'm borrowing your hand, dear reader), at least I could take my accountability into my own hands (see what I did there ;) ) BEFORE I went to bed. So there's that at least. Good ol' accountability.

3. I actually feel, overall, much more well rested. Which is weird. Because I didn't really meet my resolution goal very well. That being said, when I was consistently (ish) doing it that first week, I did have more energy. Was it because I was actually getting good, quality sleep? Meh. That's debatable. The spikes in sound and movement some nights were almost off the charts. (Seriously, check out this app!) But, I did have better control over my sleep patterns. Guess there's something to be said for a sleep schedule. 

4. I'm tired. It's 11:54pm as I'm typing this. It's almost past my "bedtime". (Perhaps the resolution did it's job, then? Albeit spotty at times?)

So in short, I'll have to wrap things up (see #4). 

What's next on the hit parade?

Well, I mentioned increased water intake. And now that I have a new water bottle that DOESN'T LEAK! I feel much more inclined to tackle this resolution. 

And some words of encouragement to us all:

Resolutions are science experiments. Sometimes you need to adjust the variables to make it work. But always keep the constant consistent: Be true to yourself.

I will write a much more engaging blog entry next time. I had all this great info I was going to share. I even had a news article about sleep that *happened* to be in the paper at the end of the first week! But...then I just kept not finding the time to write this entry because...well...there was Netflix and then I had to go to bed. Late. So...I think I just wrote my next resolution. ;)

Until the next time I provide you with scintillating details of important mundane human tendencies...

I must retire. ;)

SMS

Resolution: More sleep, with less sleep.

Onto this week and more personal goals:

I know I need about 9 hours of sleep to FULLY function. Don't judge; everybody has different sleep needs, and I happen to be on the longer side of the spectrum. There's real legit material out there about this...which I would cite here, but that's not part of my small resolution this week, so sorry. But feel free to Google it! ;) Now, unlike my husband, my father, and I'm pretty sure my brother, I can't just count back from when I have to get up in the morning and go to sleep at the hour upon which the math lands. I have the female genetics wherein we stay up way the heck too late and then suffer for days when we realize we need more sleep. And when we go to bed at a "reasonable" time, it usually ends up with a lot of brain commotion or a really good book.

If you know me at all, you know this about my sleep habits:

1. I love sleep
2. I am a night owl
3. I love to sleep in

Well, this was all fine and dandy before Little Miss. Now I have to get up in the morning. Mornings. Blech. Luckily, I am blessed with a late sleeper (for a toddler) as she'll tend to sleep until 9:30am. If you'd ask 27-year-old me (really, pick any age of former me...), I would have been aghast at the mere mention of that hour. Morning shouldn't happen until 11am, if it has to happen at all. And while I still tend to agree with her, I don't have that luxury. Instead, I somehow have to reconcile my three big sleep habits. So...this is where it stands:

1. I love sleep.
2. I am a night owl with a bedtime. I am going to try and go to bed between 11pm-12am every night I can...this week.
3. I *get* to sleep in...until 9:30am.

Instead of telling myself, "Sondra, you must go to bed at 10:30pm and wake up at ... to then work out and have a balanced breakfast," I will give myself a range to get into bed (now the pressure is off so I'm not feeling like I have to fall asleep just then) and then I can have a little me time as a bonus since I read in bed (which usually helps me fall asleep...unless it's a really amazing book. Then I'm really in trouble...).

I'm hoping that after a week of this, I'll be better equipped to answer the question, "What if you went to bed at the same time and got up at the same time?" We shall see. I'm counting on my child for the morning part of that question.

Here goes!

And if you happen to notice the posting time, well, keep in mind that I am technically in bed. :)

Until next time, cheers!

The End of January...and how are YOUR resolutions going?

Aloha!

It has been a while, but the time has come for me to get back to writing. To begin, I will start with A Blog Creation (see what I did there ;) ). What's in store? Resolutions.

It's almost the end of the January. For those of you who made resolutions, how are they going? Have you stuck with them? Have you thrown them to the curbside along with the Lindor truffle wrappers like the ones currently in my garbage can? (They're just so good... ;) ) Are you starting (or restarting) next week? Next month? (Coincidently, next week IS next month...just saying ;) )

Many of us tend to have lofty and multiple resolutions all the time. Not just at the beginning of the year. And that's the tricky part: the goals are sometimes just too big, too many. Not that they aren't valuable or viable, but sometimes, oftentimes, we just can't sustain all the changes we want to make because we are trying to do too much.

This is something that has been coming up a lot recently, in my life. I've had to do a lot of refocusing, of shifting priorities and goals: lessening them or putting them on the backburner. There has been quite a bit of change in the last couple years for our family (hello, Little Miss!), most of which has been joyous and wonderful. But it's also made things challenging, tricky, time-consuming. We've adjusted--some things removed, others just temporarily put on hiatus, still others lessened.

The last couple years, I haven't done any New Year Resolutions as I mostly have just been in survival mode since the birth of our daughter. But now that she's a full-blown toddler, I feel like I can spare some time to work on myself again. That may seem very contradictory, I know. Why would you choose NOW? Now? Everyone knows toddlers go a mile a minute both physically and emotionally. But in reality, it's the BEST time. Because Little Miss has given me a gift: she's shown me that I can make small changes that have a BIG effect.

In years' past, when I've felt so inclined, I have written resolutions down, sealed them in an envelope, and had my husband open it at the end of the year to assess how well I did on my goals. It made me feel more accountable, and even if I didn't meet my resolutions completely, I still found myself attempting them more consistently.

I'm not doing that this year.

Instead, I'm going to choose something small each week (or every other week or every third week, depending on the space and time in my life this year) and I'm going to write about it here. Because that's one of my BIG goals. Not this blog, but writing in general. So instead of trying to jump into a huge writing project (or rewriting, which is really the project that's on the to-do list), I'm starting with something more accessible to the time-frame I have right now. Plus, in theory, writing it on here will keep me more accountable for all my goals, big and small.

I feel like this month has already gone fairly well. More family time is one of our combined goals this year. And we got that immediately out of the starting gate: a trip to Hawaii with my husband and daughter for my 30th birthday. Yes, that was BIG, but the time we spent together for that week reminded us that it's the small, everyday gestures and nuances that make this our life and make our life what we want it to be: watching our daughter have so much enjoyment in walks, playtime (at the beach), eating dinner together, reading books near each other.

When we came home, we continued family time: we made sure to sit down and eat dinner as a family every night that we could. Last week we managed to do that at least four times, maybe five. And this week, it'll probably only be two or three. BUT, those 30-45 minutes are so rewarding. No phones. Only the three of us (plus the hovering furry one looking eagerly for high chair scraps). And somehow, those precious minutes before and after dinner are spent more fulfilled. We aren't playing, "What do you want to eat?" as much because we know we have to have something figured out before the dinner hour arrives. And afterwards, it's just time to be a family.

I know that my husband and I will keep striving to continue this relatively small thing: dinner together as a family. It's reaping so many rewards already, and it's only been one week (officially) for the dinner-sized-portion of this goal ;)

So far, the theme is fundamentals. Last week:  food. This week: sleep. Next week: water. And so, onto the next blog post!

Cheers to happy, healthy, and fulfilled!