And it’s getting old. Last night, I slept for almost 13 hours, and woke up feeling like I could have slept for another 13. (I’d had only three hours’ sleep the night before, but still. Surely I should have been well rested after only 8 hours.)
We fly to the US on Saturday, for Christmas with my family, and I’m a bit concerned about how I’m going to deal with another case of jet lag. I’m not a fun person to be around when I’m sleep-deprived.
December 20, 2006 at 9:43 pm
I’m sure someone has mentioned this, but are you getting any sunshine? I find that in winter, if it is a sunny day, I should make a point to be outside for even a few minutes at mid-day. It really makes a difference with my sleeping schedule, jet lag or not. I don’t know how easy that is during a London winter, however.
December 22, 2006 at 2:14 am
No, I’m not getting much sunshine at all.
I had a very interesting talk with my therapist tonight about this…He said that, if we think of what is so wonderful about being in bed and sleeping, it is the feeling of insulation and safety. This is very similar to the feeling of being in a mother’s comforting embrace. As he put it, we crave in adulthood what we didn’t have as a child.
January 3, 2007 at 1:41 am
In my experience, the biggest causes of tiredeness are burnout (study or employment, etc) and a lack of excercise….. I feel exactly that way now, courtesy of a rather sedentary Xmas holiday, which was preceded by several long weeks at work, so I sort of got the worst of both worlds.
Biggest turnarounds for me are regular walks, knocking sleep back to 8 hours a night and plenty of water and green tea (antioxidants abound). It’s hard to get motivated to do the walking when you’re exhausted but it works.
As for sleep deprivation….. according to some studies, you don’t need X hours of sleep to catch up on X hours of lost sleep…. 3 nights of only 3 hours of sleep each (about 15 hours short of what’s healthy in total) can be made up with just a good solid 8-hour sleep.
January 10, 2007 at 4:00 pm
i am the same. my dcotor put it down to my depression but it’s not getting any better at all.
more excercise is all anyone ever tells me!
January 23, 2007 at 9:31 am
where are you? I really enjoy your blog. Trust all is well.