I finished writing yesterday’s post at 5:15AM. Which means, I was up at 4 something. Luckily, after it was over, I went back to sleep but the sleep issue is real. The “over-thinking things” issue is real. The “repeating bad patterns of behavior” issue is real. It’s all connected.

A few months ago I was convinced that if I could solve just one problem, the sleep problem, that other things would follow suit. If I got a good night sleep and could do so continuously, then I would have a clearer head during the day. I would be more rested and be able to focus on my other goals. In January, it started working and I really felt the improvement.

I had more energy to devote to exercise. I became motivated to track my steps and food so I could decide where I should start making other improvements. I was finding a way to fit it all in and slowly but surely I was also feeling better about being single. I started thinking less and less about Matt and the past and more and more about the future. That change in my mental health, in turn, made it easier to sleep at night. And so the circle goes around.

A few weeks ago, I treated myself to a road trip and 3 days in Saint Louis and during that time I did not get enough sleep. I was still getting pretty good exercise, but also not eating healthy as we were eating all the good food the city had to offer. I stopped tracking my food because doing so on the road and on vacation and at random restaurants is too hard to keep up with.

When I returned, I got back on the tracking right away, but the sleep did not bounce back. I decided to cut caffeine, which for the most part, I am still not having, but have not seen any improvements from that.

Then last week when I got not one or two news flashes, but five… my mental state took a serious dive, I started eating too much and stopped tracking my food, and my sleep duration and quality got even worse.

I’m tracking my sleep with my FitBit so I have actual stats to trend the changes. For most of February, my Fitbit recorded an average of about 7 hours of sleep at night. Last week, my average was right around 5. And most of that sleep was very restless.

So when everything is connected like this, how do you deal with a change or another surprise without it just all collapsing like dominos? I wish I had the answer, but I don’t. The best I can do is hit the reset button.

Start over and take it from the top.

In other words… focus on the sleep. Maybe this time it will take less time for things to improve. One can hope. On that note, it is time for me to call it quits and try for those 7 hours now.

Start->Restart,
Miss SugarCookie