I love sleep. My bed is honestly like sleeping on a cloud. My sheets are soft and I have a fluffy down comforter that just wraps me up like a gentle hug. I love sleep so much that I could easily spend an entire day cuddled up in the darkness of my bedroom, binge watching America's Next Top Model and only leaving to pee and refill my glass of wine.
While I love sleep, I also frequently deprive myself of it. I work over 60 hours a week, fluctuating between early morning day shifts, to all third shifts and rotating second shifts. I have no set schedule, so sleep is usually hard to come by for me. It is nothing for me to sleep 4 or 5 hours so that I can maintain some form of a social life, but I often sleep through plans with people because I am just so tired.
My lack of sleeping schedule has taught me something pretty important... I can live on less sleep. In fact, I should live on less sleep.
I can't even begin to tell you how many days I have completely slept through because I forgot to set an alarm. Or how many times I have hit snooze so many times I missed plans for breakfast with someone. Or didn't go on a morning run because I was "tired."
I guess it's really easy to want to sleep in, or take a nap instead of spending time with your family, and I'm definitely not telling you to deprive yourself of sleep, because we definitely need sleep, but what I am saying is that before you make the decision to hit snooze think about what you will be missing out on.
I can guarantee you that when you are 80 years old you aren't going to be thankful for all the naps you have taken, but you are going to be reminiscing on all the nights you barely slept. The mornings you rolled out of bed to go make memories with your friends.
Not only is sleeping less going to provide you with memories, but if you want to get the life you want, you've got to work for it. I am positive CEO's didn't sleep in to get where they are. Olympic medalists don't take naps on Sunday afternoons.
Stop sleeping your life away, stop sleeping your memories away, stop sleeping in on Saturdays, stop sleeping until your mediocre.
Wake up, be present, and be awesome. The grind doesn't stop, unless you do.
