Sleep...Why I don't and why I need to

Everybody knows how important sleep is to our health.  The amount and quality of sleep we get each night radically affects almost every aspect of our health, from our hearts to our weight to our mental health. Sleep deprivation causes a startling amount of car accidents each year.  In fact, the CDC reports that 1 in 20 adults has fallen asleep at the wheel.  I know there were many times when I was working several jobs or working and going to school at night when I was too tired to drive safely.  Yet I did anyway.

I am working on losing weight.  Again. Or maybe still.  However I phrase it, the end result is the same. I have been saying I was going to work on losing weight and I only gave it a little bit of a try.  Couple that with the foot injuries I have been battling and the extra weight has been hanging around like a bad penny.

I decided I need a holistic and more of a project approach to this.  By project I mean I need to be a good planner.  I need to plan what I am going to eat and when and also when I will exercise.  By looking at losing weight in a holistic manner I realized that I do not get nearly enough sleep!

There are many reasons why people don't sleep enough - they are working, doing housework, night owls, drink too much caffeine, and on and on.  I tend to do a lot of little things around the house after Lilly is asleep and then I unwind by fooling around on the computer or watching some television.  What does this mean?  I need to change several little routines so that I can make the bigger change of going to sleep earlier and waking up without being exhausted still.

Since I am working full time at a summer camp for 7 weeks, I think I will be forced to get enough sleep.  I know it will be exhausting! The person who came to speak to us from the camp's insurer even spoke about the dangers of sleep deprivation, as did the camp director.

With all that being said, I think part of it is that I just have to get myself into bed!  Easier said than done for this night owl....

How much sleep do you get per night?  What are some tips for getting a good night's sleep?

I am such a night owl

How do I turn myself into a morning person?  I know the ways in which I should train myself into a morning person.  I know why I should become a morning person, namely, getting to work in a timely and not panic attack-inducing fashion.  But I just cannot get myself to go to sleep early enough so that waking up early is not a constant battle.

I would like to be able to get up early enough to work out in the mornings.  The way things stand now, and historically speaking, I am lucky I have time to jump in the shower in the mornings before work.  Please don't look at my legs because they will not be smooth, but more on the bristly side.

I like to go on the computer after Lilly is in bed and do all my farmville and cityville stuff.  (It's all right; you can laugh at me.)  I like to exercise and/or watch a little TV before I settle in for the night.  i don't do all things every night.  I blog.  Sometimes I like to read.  This is not even including the usual evening chores: dinner dishes, breakfast/lunch for the next day, get clothes ready, laundry maybe.  I cannot even begin to fathom doing household chores on school nights, as much as I would like to.  I think about mopping the kitchen floor after she is in bed.  That's as far as that goes.

There have been periods of my life during which I forced myself to wake up early to exercise before work.  I loved doing it early because I was more likely to get it done, I ate better the rest of the day and I felt very energized all day.  Plus I would be so tired early in the evening that I would actually go to bed and fall asleep earlyish.

So meanwhile I have been writing about going to sleep early as the clock ticks on.  Maybe if I reward myself... 1 pedicure for 5 nights of early to bed and the consequential 5 days of early to rise.  hmmm.....I might be onto something...