I’ve had a long day today – woke with the alarm at 6 (that’s a lie in for me), got the kiss and dogs out of the house. Next I worked on editing my online programme, picked my youngest up early from his trip, picked the others up. Then onto tea and took my son to Cardiff for athletics meet in the evening which ran 40 mins late, picked my eldest up from work, let them all shower to go to bed and finally jumped in the bath myself at 11.35pm.
As a result of getting used to 2-4 hours sleep when I lived with depression, I could just as easily stay up now as I could go to sleep. When I was ill, I would choose to stay up until I was dropping. Coming to bed allowed my thoughts free reign to bombard me, confuse me and trigger powerful emotions that made my sleep worthless.
So tonight – and as many nights as I can – I choose to come to bed, read a bit and sleep. You see my thoughts no longer control my bedtime or sleep quality. I control what I do, how I think about it and the actions I take.
I made a promise to myself that I would practice a good bedtime routine, coming to bed to chill and switch off first as often as possible but occasionally it can’t be helped. It is up to me to make good choices for my mental, emotional and physical health