Sleep is more important to some people than food.  If we don’t get enough of it, we spend all day waiting to crawl back into bed.  Some blame on a lack of sleep on their job, their children or too many things to do.  Yesterday, I did not get proper sleep and I noticed 3 things about myself that were different.

1. I had no energy or energy all of a sudden. 

While having no energy shouldn’t be a surprise, having energy in random spurts was.  Admittedly, I took a nap before class for an hour but no by choice.  I don’t know if I slept too long or not long enough but through out parts of class I felt like literally doing summersaults.  The topic yesterday was Jnana Yoga and the teacher is always very engaging but I felt Mr. Sandman come and I quietly ask him to leave the room.     

2. I didn’t want to engage with people. 

I am an engaging people because I absolutely love people but yesterday during my low points of energy I just wanted to blend into the crowd.  I had to prepare a two minute talk and despite my preparation, I simply just gave up.  One of my classmates noticed that I wasn’t ‘being myself.’  Instead of offering an excuse, I just said, ‘I know.’  I felt defeated at best.  

3. I went to bed at 7:30pm. 

Knowing that you need to take care of yourself is one of the most important fundamentals for your life.  I stress this to my mom all the time explaining that the ramp up of activity causes her to get ill right after a huge event.  I walked my dogs, changed my pajamas and then went straight into bed.  I didn’t feel guilty for not cooking or doing some laundry.  I felt proud of myself for taking that time to take of me.

We all need sleep.  The amounts of sleep vary from person to person.  Seven hours of sleep seems to be effective for me but anything less than that completely puts a damper on my productivity and personality.  I have been in a good sleep routine for some time now so to not get the proper amount of sleep made me more present to what it was like.  We all have a million things going on but we never have too much going on to take care of ourselves.