After giving birth to a sweet baby girl, I’ve started to feel what sleeping means to me. Because I stayed home, with her, feeling exhausted wasn’t an issue.
But when I returned to work, things changed! She was 8 months old when I returned to my office.
Not to mention that I actually changed my job for a better payed one, but in the same time, my working hours changed! I stayed much more at the office and the stress was much higher than at my previous job. I felt overwhelmed…
It’s quite difficult to have a full time stressful job and most of the time only 4 or 5 sleeping hours per night. But I had to resist and to adapt at this tight schedule!
There is one essential thing that I’ve learned about the relation between sleep and stress: it’s much easier to prevent stress if I get enough sleep!
Let’s see what is actually hapening to us when we don’t have enough sleep:
– our thought process is slowing down. We are less concentrated on our work and our efficiency is minimal. Maybe coffee would help, but not for a long period of time.
– we are hungry!!! like, all the time! I know only a few people which are losing weight when they are stressed. On the other hand, many of us gain weight during a stressful period…unfortunately…
– we don’t feel motivated, we feel bad, we are upset, we have the wrong impression that nothing works for us, it’s almost impossible to make decisions and we also tend to argue with anyone around us. This happens because we don’t feel appreciated and we believe that nobody understands us. Maybe true, maybe not…
All of these are stressors! The fact that we can’t think anymore and that we need more time to accomplishe our tasks it’s hard to manage. It’s obvious that we hide our lack of sleep from our managers and this is also hard to do. The fact that we can’t control our emotions and that we are much more sensitive is … how should I say this?! it’s not like you’re pregnant again and everyone understands your emotional state…
No…everyone sees you like a freak and they “attack” with: “you’re way too sensitive!“, “have you seen your doctor recently?!“, “calm down!” ( this one makes me crazy!).
And the big issue is… our weight! Why are we hungry?! It’s not enough that I haven’t sleep all night long because of some new teeth growing in the house (and it’s the third time this week), that I have 3 meetings during this day and I have to present a new project!
My appetite is growing and I could eat like an elephant! What a disaster! Right?
I don’t think I’m the only one feeling this way.
This state is a stressor! We need to get rid of this state!
The thing is that we need help! From us and from the others also.
So, we need to have some sleep in the first place! Whenever we feel it’s necessary! 30 minutes, an hour…especially on our days off. The best advice that I’m following and I want to share with you is:
have some sleep with your kids during the day, then have a good coffee, and think about how to stay organized.
If you stay organized and you set your short term goals(achievable ones), you will feel better, you will be more stress-resistant!
Also, another good thing is to accept the situation. Accept your tiredness, accept your frustrations, accept the changes from your life as parent. Ask for help in your family if you think you need it. Ask your husband to go to a walk with your kid for an hour so you can get some sleep.
Everyone needs time and everything will be fine if you stay connected to your family and to your purpose.
Self-coaching for busy people 