I'm Tired

By Skinny Farmer

I admit it, I'm tired this morning.

You ever feel that way too?  Of course.  We all experience it from time to time.  I used to feel exhausted every morning, until I started taking steps to improve my sleep.

But not lately.  Lately I've been extra tired in the morning.

And I only have myself to blame.  That's because I'm not following my own advice.

I just want to crawl in.

What do I need to do to improve my sleep?

There are some fundamental things that, at least for me, have made a big difference.

I'll list some of them and then tell you where I screwed up.

I used to be bad at sleeping.

How can someone be bad at sleeping?  By not setting up an environment or following practices that give your body the best opportunity to rest.

I used to be a horrible offender of this first one:

Television in the Bedroom

For as long as I can remember, I had a television in my bedroom and I left it on all night long.

It sounds absurd to me now, but, for the old me, it was natural.  I know I wasn't alone in that.  According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2011 Report, two-thirds of Americans watched television within one hour of going to sleep.

Let's pause and think about this for a moment: Television Executives get paid big bucks to come up with captivating content designed to keep your eyes on the screen so that you will absorb the advertisements embedded in the entertainment. Does that sound like something designed to sooth you to sleep?

I had to get it out of the bedroom.

That was a huge help.  But I slipped up the last few nights.  I watched some episodes of a series right before bed.  Now I'm paying the price.

Eating before Bedtime

There are tons of reasons we shouldn't eat right before bed.  I have found eating right before bed does not promote weight loss.  It also makes it harder to get a good night's sleep.

I try to give my body a few hours to digest my last meal before bedtime.  So ideally, no snacking right before bed either.

I screwed that up last night as well.  Because of my schedule, I didn't get home until after 11:00 PM and had not yet had dinner.  So even though I ate a wonderful Keto meal of homemade slow-roasted pulled pork with cabbage, I ate it right before bed.  In front of the television (another no-no).  

So I've been a bad boy.

If you are interested in learning more about Keto, check out my article KEy To Weight Loss.

Also, if you are interested in some of our recipes, let us know in the comments down below.

Not allowing at least Seven Hours to Sleep

I used to pride myself on how little sleep I could get by on.  I think I picked that trait up from my mother.  She was the first one up in the morning and the last to go to sleep at night.  I don't know how she did it.

So I would think I was being extra productive by trying to get by with only a few hours sleep each night.  But my health and my productivity were both suffering because of it.  I just didn't realize it.

As I told you in prior posts, I was way overweight.  I never could figure out why no matter what I did I couldn't shed the pounds.  I even was naive enough to think that my being up for so many hours I would burn more fat because I was not laying in bed with my eyes closed.

I was wrong.  I have found that my body needs proper rest to burn the fat.  At least 7 or 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night.  I'm not getting that right now because of my crazy schedule.  And I'm extra tired because of it.  And, I believe my weight loss has paused at least in part because of it.

So I plan to make some changes to my schedule to ensure I get plenty of rest each night.  What can you do to make sure you get plenty of rest?

I realize some of you have small children or crazy schedules that make it difficult to get long periods of uninterrupted sleep.  I've been there.  If anyone has a strategy that they successfully employ to overcome those obstacles (I have trouble spelling that word for some reason!), please post it in the comments below.

This is a sharing community and we all benefit from the exchange of ideas.

So, as you can see, I have to make some changes to I can get back on track.  I need my beauty sleep!

If you found this topic interesting, let us know in the comments below.  If there is sufficient interest, we could invite a sleep expert to guest blog about how to get the best night's sleep possible.

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Until next time.

-SF