I’ve set my
alarm for the same time everyday and here’s why;
Now I am the queen of random wake up times. I
spent years working in hospitality with two start times; 11am and 4pm. This did
me absolutely NO favours, I got sick more often and I was always tired.
Obviously you can’t necessarily change where you work but you can make a change
to your routine to try and at least incorporate an hour or two to take in some
fresh air and daylight. I haven’t been feeling on top form recently and have
found that despite the fact sleeping in feels lovely whilst you’re doing it, It
doesn’t help you have a productive day and certainly doesn’t make you any
happier for the busy hours ahead.
Over sleeping is referred to by clever people
as ‘sleep drunkenness’ and is sleepy
times version of a hangover. That’s right my friends, what we think is a reward
for our body is in fact inflicting
hangover like symptoms!? It makes you feel totally rubbish because you are
confusing the part of your brain that controls your daily cycle. Deep down
inside us is a clever little group of cells, this is your circadian pacemaker
which is found in the part of your brain that also controls when you feel hot
and sweaty or if you are feeling hungry or thirsty. It’s mostly controlled by
light and figures out when its morning, it then sends signals to the rest of
the body. You’re probably working this out now right? Get up at 1pm, your body
will be screaming woaahhh whats going on
man! This makes you feel even more tired because despite the fact you got
out of bed at midday, your body clock woke bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7am!
It’s not just
your day it’s messing up; it has also been linked to heart disease, diabetes,
memory loss and obesity. Do remember that if you are taking regular medication
drinking a bit too much, this will affect your sleep. I went from someone who
could just about manage an 8 hour stretch to taking Oxy Codone daily and
managing a whopping 12 hours sometimes without breaking up a sweat! I recently purchased a Lumie Body Clock, it wakes you up with natural day light (takes some getting used to) but I am loving it! Now I am always
sceptical when I read about something that is apparently going to make me live
longer, but as someone who has more health problems in the last two years than
most people have in their entire life, I’m willing to give it a shot.