TOMORROW IS FRIDAY!! Haha, we made it!! I can barely believe it. By the looks of outside right now, a lot of people might be having an extended weekend (it's super snowy and windy and the trafic is insanely slow). Good ol' Canadian winters!
This week I've been extremely tired. I have no idea why. I get home and could basically fall asleep for the night as soon as I walk in the door. Needless to say I've been drinking a lot of coffee and tea. I'm trying to stay clear of the energy drinks, however I may have caved once or twice this week... It's almost necessary because I have things to get done! Studying, blogging, blog designs, reading, oh and... I don't know... spending time with Carlton? Lol.. I've been heading to bed around 9:45 pm every night and I'm basically passed out by 10:15. I know that's super early for a lot of people. I think it's early too BUT my body just craves sleep. Is it possible that I'm sleeping too much? Wait, I'm going to go Google it. Be right back...
... Alright. So I just read some very interesting stuff.
- The bodies "sleep/wake" cycle follows a regular pattern called a circadian rhythm. Too much sleep causes your rhythm to shift.
- When our bodies circadian rhythm's start "telling the wrong time" we feel lethargic, fatigued, and basically like we didn't sleep at all.
- The average sleep cycle lasts 80-120 minutes, with the average being 90 minutes. The average person has 5 cycles per night totalling about 7.5 hours of sleep.
- When you sleep in, you extend the number of cycles and usually wake up in the middle of a cycle. If the part of the cycle you wake up in is REM or deep sleep, you may wake up feeling worse than when you fell asleep.
So I also found some tips to help you (or me) sleep better:
- Go to bed and get up at the same time every day including weekends. The most important part is your wake-up time... even if you go to bed later than usual, wake up at the same time and go to bed 15-30 minutes earlier the next night. - Expose yourself to sunlight in the morning.- Try to schedule exercise in the morning as opposed to later in the day.- Avoid napping past 3pm. The best time to nap is early afternoon (1pm - 3pm). Make your naps wither 30-90 minutes in length. If you nap longer than 30 minutes but shorter than 90 minutes you run the risk of waking up during a sleep cycle and waking up groggy.- Try to avoid sleeping in on weekends, it shifts your circadian rhythm. - Avoid alcohol and caffeine close to bed because they keep you from entering a deep sleep and your body will try and make-up for the lack of deep sleep when you're almost ready to wake up.
Damn... I've been doing this sleep thing all wrong. I was so convinced that getting a solid ten hours of sleep per night was awesome. Napping after work on Friday from like 6pm - 8pm so I could prepare myself for a night out was GENIUS. Makes sense why I'd be dying for a liquid-pick-me-up like Red Bull. Tonight I will be trying the 7.5 hours of sleep trick which means I'll be heading to bed around 11:10 pm. Wish me luck! I guess I shouldn't have just had that green tea. I can promise by 11:10 it will be like I never had it at all.
Today Jenny and I worked out with our Trainer Friend again. It's hard for me to type and hold my mug of tea because my arm muscles are so friggin exhausted!! We did another one of his insane circuits again today, except the whole thing took us almost an hour, as opposed to 30 minutes. The circuit was this:
3 rounds:
20 situps20 kettlebell swings20 renegades20 box jumps20 ab roll out thingies20 chest press on stability balls20 assisted pull-ups20 deadlifts4 rounds of farmer walksAnd then barf when you're done if you want to. It was SO HARD I had sweat dripping off my face when doing renegades or the ab rolley outty thing. We almost didn't do the third round but then we had the time so we did it anyways. I'm glad we did. Obviously - I never regret doing hard workouts because they feel great afterwards. I instantly downed some Sun Warrior protein when I got back to my desk... but I'm still so shakey and weak.
On a fun note, I got some fun things at the grocery store this week! Well, one is new and one is just a refill...
Fun! I eat hemp hearts every morning in my dairy-free yogurt parfait. 2 tbsp! They're full of fiber and omega's... and all around greatness! The dragon fruit below is something I don't get often because they're very expensive when they aren't in season. I guess they're in season now because the price is much lower than usual, about half! And guess what? Dragon fruit are full of greatness.. check it!:
- a great snack for those trying to lower cholesterol as it contains little to no harmful cholesterol.
- dragon fruit is packed with Vitamin C!
- they are full of antioxidants (which help eliminate free radicals in the body that could potentially be cancerous).
- they contain a good amount of fiber, about 1g of fiber/100g of fruit!
Neat right? I like them mostly because they are so darn pretty.
What are your sleep patterns like?? I'm curious to know if I was the only one thinking that 10 hours of sleep was a great idea. Have you had dragon fruit before? Today was Jenny's first time trying it! :)
