day 14: outta bed ya sleepyhead

When my alarm went off this morning, I jolted up in bed. Usually, the sound fades in from out of the fog in my mind and I suddenly realize it's getting louder and louder before reaching to turn it off.

But it startled me this morning.

I was startled because after laying my head on the pillow some eight hours before, I did not stir--that I was conscious of--until BOOM! it was morning.

This is a big deal.

Before last night, I could honestly say that I didn't remember the last time I slept soundly through the night. 

Let me say that again. In my known memory--meaning all of my 20s, college, high school, basically back to middle school--I don't really remember ever sleeping that soundly. I've always classified myself as a "light sleeper": easily roused by noises, another person rolling over in the bed, or my own need to go to the bathroom.

In recent years, caffeine consumption has probably played a pretty big role. I liked to tell myself that it wasn't affecting me that much since I never really had trouble falling asleep initially at night. Even knowing the half-life of caffeine being about six hours didn't stop me from drinking some caffeinated-beverages as late in the evening as eight or nine some nights. Who did I think I was kidding? Of course that is going to affect my sleep!

So the caffeine was my fault. My bad. Now it's out of my system. 

As far as I can tell, I don't NEED it. My energy levels are fine without it--better even. I do like the taste of coffee (I'm such an adult) so I may have it occasionally in the future (but only first thing in the morning). Anyway, I'm head over heels obsessed with this certain brand of rooibos tea that rocks my world literally every day and there's no shame in making that my new go-to hot beverage (sorry I'm not sorry, Starbucks).

So I've tackled the caffeine problem. The next thing I would point to as sabotaging my sleep is anxiety.

That's a work in progress--but as I've alluded to multiple times already in this journey--nutrition is linked with a lot of factors, and everything together seems to be improving my overall state of well-being, including soothing some of my anxieties. So in general, I'm not so much directly addressing my anxiety issues as they relate to sleep, but I am noticing indirectly how other things in my life (vis-a-vis addressing nutrition, being active, interacting socially, and consequently, sleeping better) are affecting my anxiety levels. 

But more on nutrition (of course, right?). When it comes to sleeping well, I've never really considered that what I was eating was a big factor. I mean, I guess I'd heard that you shouldn't eat right before bed because then your GI system is actively trying to digest while you're sleeping and that can be disruptive. But the hormonal things happening when I'm asleep--and how my food affected those hormones--was completely off my radar.

No more! Consider me a believer. I don't care if it's just the caffeine-free life, just the good food, or a necessary combination of both, I'm on board.

I'm excited to get ready for bed just so I can sleep so well again and wake up even more refreshed and rearing to go tomorrow.

But beware--too many of these nights of sound sleep in a row and I may become unstoppable.