Sunday night insomnia
Raise your hands if this describes you. You have no problem falling asleep all week. In fact, most nights you can scarcely keep your eyes open long enough to see your favorite primetime drama. You have to record it and watch it another night. You run, run, run all week long and you are sure you aren’t getting enough sleep but you just do what you have to do, right? Come the weekends, you live it up! Splitting your Saturday between grocery shopping and cleaning the house, you need a nap before you can go to the dinner party you’ve been looking forward to all week long. Sunday you decide to take it easy. Maybe staying up till the wee hours of the morning didn’t feel so great when you woke up the next day.
Unfortunately, with each passing hour Sunday night, you’re not falling asleep the way you do during the week. In fact, you’re feeling more alive than you did yesterday and wish that you could have had the same energy level all week.
You lay there awake; clock is ticking– and the louder it ticks the worse your sense of doom is.
“Why did my boss call a 7:30 Monday morning meeting when she knows my brain doesn’t function until at least 10:00 a.m.?”
“Did I remember to pay the electricity bill? The bill isn’t overdue is it?
“Speaking of overdue, when did I change the oil in my car last?”
Yeah, you too? Well, my friend, you’re not alone. You have a condition known as Sunday Night Insomnia. It’s not an official diagnosis, and there are no studies to prove it. But even though science and the medical community haven’t caught up with this lousy problem that most working Canadians have, follow this advice and you can rid yourself of it forever.
What’s your bed for? No, this isn’t a trick question! We’re conditioned to believe that it’s for reading in, watching TV before falling asleep and a ton of other stuff like sewing and checking those last emails before bed, it’s not! First thing, remove the TV from the bedroom. I know it sounds drastic, but try it.
Next, if you find yourself tossing and turning, get out of bed and do that someplace else. All you’re doing by staying in bed agonizing is allowing whatever is irking you to feed on itself, which isn’t helping your inability to fall asleep. If you want to get up and watch TV or read that murder mystery, that’s fine, but do it in the Healthy Living room, not the bed.
You keep this regimented sleep schedule during the week and then throw your rhythms off come the weekend. If your bedtime is normally 10:00 pm during the week but on the weekends you’re up till 3:00 am in the morning, your Healthy Body is simply confused. Luckily, with a few simple adjustments you can help keep your snooze agenda all week long.
Until next time,
Peace, love and vitamin C!
