I started tracking my sleep earlier this year when I got a new phone and watch. I was at the time working nights and barely got any sleep at all. This morning I went back and looked at the trend for the last couple of weeks and I found it quite interesting!

You can see where I started working days. It was actually a little earlier than that. But I was still very stressed and had a hard time with my sleep. The stress made me wake up during the night and had a hard time going back to sleep. Had to take muscle relaxers sometimes when I was off just to get adequate sleep. Then, the days before my last shift… I was exhausted from the weekend so I got some good sleep. But that’s also when I felt the stress start going away. Did my last shift on the 30th and look after that… Boom. Back to normal. I usually sleep a lot! But this is a little bit more than what I usually sleep, probably because all the stress going out of my body and the excitement with a new job etc. But this entire week I have felt well rested, alert and so much happier.

This showed me how much stress impacted my sleep and well being. It was a little proof to myself that it was rough but I am proud that I got through it! 8 hours is optimal for me and of course, it is far from every day time allows to get that much sleep but if I can get caught up like this now and then I will be absolutely marvelous! So take care of yourself, put yourself first because no one else will!