Good Morning Lovelies, 

On the day of writing this, I have spent a few hours this afternoon catching up on my sleep. After a night of disturbances from my neighbours, who like to make banging and shouting sounds throughout the early hours, I could tell that my body was ready to drop. I felt like I wasn’t seeing things clearly and my body just ached to crawl into bed. 

Yet, with AuDHD and an eating disorder, I find resting and naps hard to have. I often find my mind telling me that resting is lazy and that I must keep going and going until eventually my body forces me to stop from burning out. A scary situation that I have been in a lot of times. 

This year, I told myself and my mum that I wanted this continuous pattern to change and hopefully stop. I wanted to get to bed earlier and rest more. I wanted to accept that sleep is not the enemy and actually something that makes my body thrive better. I can see clearer, walk further and do more. I can laugh and smile when my body knows that we have had the sleep we need. 

I have never been someone who needs a full seven or more hours, often getting enough at six, but if I can’t get to this number, I struggle. I am a real night owl, fighting to get better at waking up earlier to start being more productive with my work and lifestyle. To do this I need to sleep.

It wasn’t always hard for me to accept this. Sleep was something that I used to find easy during my teens. I loved nothing more than grabbing my laptop, popping on a film and spending my weekends under the duvet, watching the classics, whilst falling in and out of naps. As adulthood set in though, this freedom was torn apart, being replaced with caring, work and life duties. A fact that saddens me. 

With this feeling building inside of me, I am using the sadness that I have to rebuild myself. I am listening and sensing when my body has had too much. I have taken to my bed and slept if I need to for a few hours to rebuild the energy I have lost. I am changing my meals to fuel myself with more beneficial ingredients, enjoying the sweet delights I love too, to keep the fears from building again. 

Sleep has allowed me to see and make these changes by making me realise that resting is not the enemy. It is the part of our biology that can be so good for us. Even when people say that we need to get up and move more, there is a lot more research and reports highlighting how vital sleep is to get that energy to move and that is what I have taken on board to make the whole thing easier. 

Therefore lovelies, I wanted to write this post today to say that if you are looking for a sign that it is okay to go for that catnap, siesta or simple bed rotting day then it is more than okay! In fact, it is vital that you do so! My bed is right behind me as I write this and we have been looking longingly at each other for a while now, so I may just have to go and jump into it! Sleep masks at the ready, let the power of rest take over you lovelies!

Joey X