I woke up a little after midnight, dozed off for a little while when the sun came up, and then woke up again at 7:30 because I was hungry. This is how way too many of my nights are going recently.
I sincerely wish I could tell you that this used to be true and since I discovered blah, my nights are totally transformed and I sleep like a log sculpture of a baby every single night.
Oh, how I wish this were true.
So here’s what I do. I get up. I grab a book and read for a couple hours and then go back to bed and try to get some sleep. Sometimes it works.
If it doesn’t, I’ll give myself a Reiki self-treatment to try and send the relaxation and soothing energies to where they need to go. Sometimes it works.
If that doesn’t do it, I’ll try some Light Language; I’ll emanate some shapes that soothe, calm and relax. The color brown is grounding and energy slowing, so I’ll put some brown shapes on myself. Sometimes that works.
If that doesn’t get it done, I will at least try to slip into a meditative state so I am getting the benefits of stillness and relaxation, if not the restoration of sleep.
My mother spent more and more nights like this as she got older.
I have heard that as we get older, we not only need less food, we need less sleep, women especially. Our bodies are no longer ramping up to make babies, which really increases the fuel economy, so we need about 25-30% fewer calories. Some women say that instead of eight-to-nine hours of sleep, they typically feel best with five-to-six. Some even less. Nobody tells us this stuff, so we have to figure it out on our own, and it’s damned frustrating sometimes to discover the new balance point where you feel rested and nourished without putting on the ten or so pounds a year that so many women gain after menopause.
I guess the thing now is to try going to bed later and getting up earlier, every night, no matter what.
Take that, circadian rhythms.
Wish me luck.