Since it’s February first (and also since it’s Friday and I’m sitting on my threadbare couch singing along to “Javert’s Suicide: Soliliquy” on Pandora), I will write about my first of twelve 2013 resolutions. In January, I resolved to get seven and a half hours of sleep every night in the hope that it would be the remedy to a host of problems: grumpiness, bad skin, stress-eating.
I am pleased to report that I did quite well with the first resolution. I think I got seven and a half hours almost every night except for one or two when I couldn’t fall asleep. (Like, um, two nights ago when I spent an hour whispering potential pun-ny WVT taglines to Fiancé-friend: “Teehee…Wedding Victory Tour: Dash-bride and Eng-groom! What do you think?!”) A few nights, I got closer to eight hours, but with my early wake-up for school, it seemed like that was the maximum I could consistently manage. Some days, I had to push my Insanity workouts until the afternoon so I could get more sleep in the morning, but overall, it wasn’t too difficult to make sleeping a priority.
This is really what I look like when I sleep.
As for the benefits? Well, my skin is better today, and this month, Fiancé-friend can probably attest that I’ve been less grouchy. However, I can’t say for certain that it was the sleep. It could have been my much-lighter schedule or the regular fluctuation of my hormone levels. Disappointingly, despite getting more sleep, I still have obnoxious panda-like under-eye circle, so at some point, I’ll have to learn how to use concealer and foundation. I will say that I felt pretty miserable on the days that I got less sleep–waking up and getting out of bed was really struggle.
Let’s be honest. I look like this.
So getting sufficient sleep maybe didn’t work the kind of [unrealistic] miracles that I was expecting, but I did achieve my desired goal of making sleep a priority. And now, I’m in the habit of adjusting to get 7.5 hours every night, so I plan to continue this trend as much as possible.
I’m still deciding on my February goal, so I’ll come back to this soon. Now, back to Mica’s regularly scheduled Friday night showtunes-in-the-living room performance. Peace!
Wow, impressed! I’ve been really struggling with my resolution to get more sleep. I’ve had some pretty serious anxiety this month about my PhD not moving along as fast as I’d prefer and then general fears about joining the job force. Sigh. I think I’ve managed to get that more under control lately so hoping that means I’ll get more sleep! The other issue is that my flatmate always comes home super late (like eleven) because she’s working herself to the bone after the news that her position might not be as solid as she thought it was. So, if I go to bed at ten, I don’t see her at all. As a result, I tend to stay up to chat to her and then don’t get to bed until one or so. Oh well.
As for under eye circles, I am a huge fan of Garnier’s roll on concealers with caffeine. I think they blend really well and do seem to make a difference with puffiness. I always put another concealer over it because they can be a bit shiny (I use the Maybelline concealer stick) and that seems to work out pretty well… at least I think it does… maybe everyone around me is like “what is she thinking!?” haha.
Yay for more sleep! Do you take a multivitamin? I’m less grouchy when I have enough sleep and adequate nutrition.
I think that’s great that you got all that sleep! I’ve been working on remembering to take my vitamins and such every day…and I’ve been pretty good about it last month!