As you get older most relationships in your life get easier. You have a more defined sense of self, you have a greater knowledge & more experience of navigating relationships.
The one relationship that does seem to get more complicated is the relationship with your BED!!
It’s not lost on me how bloody old I should writing this. I used to take the piss out of my Dad for needing to “get going” on a morning and couldn’t understand why grown ups where so bloody tired all the time.
I’m sorry! I get it now!!
Once upon going to bed was a punishment. A complete inconvenience in the excitement of life. Then, whilst we still didn’t wanna go to bed it was the most beautiful place in the world once the new day was set to begin. We didn’t want to leave. Then the worse thing that we can lead our bed with was a mild hangover (this was the beginning of the bed biting back) AND now, like WTAF!!!
Now my body can feel it’s in the most comfortable place in the world but I can wake up with strains and aches in places that I didn’t even know I could get pain and aches. That occasional stiff neck you’d get as a kid and you’d be told you “slept funny” was only the tip of the iceberg.
Now I get out of bed mostly because my bladder demands it but also because I have to navigate and negogation a peacekeeping mission that the UN would be proud of to get 2 children out to school on a morning.
My bed can create aches and pains in the most random of places. My cousin recently even got a running injury in bed ~ see our beds are out to get us.
I love bed! I want to sleep longer but I feel our relationship is no longer recipricol. I think my bed might actually be out to get me.
BUT I will persevere. I will make my bed love me. I don’t normally advocate trying to force relationships at all, but I feel the challenge to win this one (although my Dad tells me that the relationship with the chair in front of the TV may be the more attractive option in years to come 😂).
In all seriousness, sleep is HUGELY important to your health & wellness. Sleep is the body’s opportunity to repair, refresh and rejuventate. Sleep should be an integral part of any training plan. If we are sleeping poorly (even for a short period of time) that can massively mess with our hormones. It means that the hormone that indicates we are full don’t stabalise and the hormones that tell us we are hungry don’t stablise (meaning we wanna eat more). Our bodies also stay in a higher state of stress and we don’t get the adaptations we want/need from our training. Effectively we don’t get the reboot our bodies need.
It’s easy to know we need more sleep but not so easy to actually get to the point of being able to GET more sleep. Sleep can become complicated as we get older too. There some stuff that helps, we all know it helps but we need to make sure we execute it;
➡️ Stop the stimulation. Our bodies are sensitive beings and we stimulate them which asks them to stay alert and tuned in ~ put the phone down, have some decompress time, move away from the bright lights & caffeine on an evening.
➡️ Treat yourself like a toddler ~ bring together a wee bit of a nightime routine so that your body has cues as to when it’s time to rest. It triggers a serious of events that your subconsious recognises ends in rest time.
➡️ Create a comfortable enviroment, free of distraction, to sleep in. Your brain is a naughty little imp that’s looking for reasons to stay awake – don’t give it any!
➡️ Don’t get frustrated if you don’t drop off straight away. Simply enjoy resting. Sleep will find you. It’s tempting to distract yourself, reset and then try again but then you’ve added a heap of stimulation into the mix.
I’ve got no advice in relation to the bed beating up your body in the night and leaving you sore, once I work it out I’ll let you know 😉😂
