Have you ever wondered how tired, tired really is?
I constantly feel in a state of tired. I know, I always blame it on having to get up every night to tend to Haydens needs knowing full well that he will, for the rest of his life, need me to tend to his needs. Then I should add to this list the rushing around like full time taxi service in the after school hours and keeping house while DH is away for 13 consecutive days, tuck in a few days of work and there you have it....everything that makes me tired.
I know that I am not the only one who suffers the effects of children and life all tossed into one bowl but just sometimes I wish that I could wave a magic wand and give myself some sleep moment in storage so I could use them when I really could do with a few extra house of sleep and more energy to cope with the rest of my day.
So for me sleep can happen as and when I need it. I can snooze in the car waiting for my daughter bus to arrive in in the afternoons, on the chair as I sit down for a few minutes to unwind, etc etc. To make this happen I need a couple of conditions;
1. The space is the right temperature for me to sleep/ snooze.
2. Eat and drink foods that support sleep.
The sleep/ snooze needs to be short and snappy. Just enough to take the edge off the need to sleep and revitalise my energy somehow. Not too much so I don't really want to wake up.
Then because I get broken sleep I have a couple of things I do
1. I don't turn the lights on when I am up in the middle of the night. In fact I could almost do the whole tend to Hayden thing at 0130 hrs.
2. I have plan B for any eventuation already sorted so I don't have to think too hard and can make decisions easily without waking myself up too much. If I have to walk myself up more then I am probably getting ready to take a trip into the hospital with Hayden.
3. Have the house and bed at the right temperature so I can go straight back to sleep.
I am no way an expert on these things but for me who is on the go these few things really help.