Sleep addendum
I've had two nights of short sleep recently - Sunday night and then Tuesday (last night). Sunday my father called me at 8:30 to come help him pack to drive off to go fishing in Mexico. For whatever reason, he was planning on leaving around 3 am. Anyway, he got packed. In the process, he gave me about 40 lbs of wild pork. I got home pretty wound up and didn't go to bed until about 12:30. Then woke at 5 am for workout. I felt very drained all day, even with coffee. I expected that. I had a tense and confrontational parent-teacher conference for my daughter (9, in 3rd grade) about how the teacher believes she'll be held back for 3rd grade again due to reading problems. I came home frustrated by that, had a family meeting with kids, boyfriend, and my mom. We worked out a study schedule for them over fall break, which starts today.
Last night, I made the unwise decision to try to smoke some of the pork to get it out of an ice chest in my garage and into a more eatable form. Instead of being a one hour process, It was more like 2, and between my boyfriend and kids I didn't get started for an hour beyond when I'd intended. Again, I didn't get to bed until midnight. This time, I skipped working out, which I'm sorry about, but I needed the sleep.
See, funny thing is that when I was getting 6 hours a night and occasionally got 8, it was no big deal. I felt the same either way. But getting 6 (or 5) hours sleep after getting 8? Whoa. I feel like absolute crap the next day. And I paid more attention to how short tempered I was Monday, since my son had mentioned it. So rather than get 4.5 or 5 hours sleep last night and go to workout, I got 6 and skipped. Tonight, I'll try to get a full night's rest.
It's interesting that I could really feel the difference on Monday - more distractible and less alert. Would I have felt that way had I been getting 6 hours a night consistently? I'm wondering if the mood swings and feelings of fatigue are due to the difference or due to the absolute. I believe habituation plays a role, but my assessment of my functioning while on short sleep (when I was habituated to it) is biased. I am not in a good position to evaluate my performance.
Something to think about.
Last night, I made the unwise decision to try to smoke some of the pork to get it out of an ice chest in my garage and into a more eatable form. Instead of being a one hour process, It was more like 2, and between my boyfriend and kids I didn't get started for an hour beyond when I'd intended. Again, I didn't get to bed until midnight. This time, I skipped working out, which I'm sorry about, but I needed the sleep.
See, funny thing is that when I was getting 6 hours a night and occasionally got 8, it was no big deal. I felt the same either way. But getting 6 (or 5) hours sleep after getting 8? Whoa. I feel like absolute crap the next day. And I paid more attention to how short tempered I was Monday, since my son had mentioned it. So rather than get 4.5 or 5 hours sleep last night and go to workout, I got 6 and skipped. Tonight, I'll try to get a full night's rest.
It's interesting that I could really feel the difference on Monday - more distractible and less alert. Would I have felt that way had I been getting 6 hours a night consistently? I'm wondering if the mood swings and feelings of fatigue are due to the difference or due to the absolute. I believe habituation plays a role, but my assessment of my functioning while on short sleep (when I was habituated to it) is biased. I am not in a good position to evaluate my performance.
Something to think about.