Need to Sleep Post FI Life

Need to Sleep

I also have some affiliate links for products. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission. Thanks.

Need to Sleep vision board

I am 13 months in from quitting my job and I am still logging in about 10 hours of sleep a night! Boy did I need to sleep!

The Need to Sleep quote stuck out for me when I was creating my vision board. I am surprised that I have not been working for over a year now and my body is still requiring a lot of hours of sleep. 

I really think that adrenal fatigue is real and that we just burn ourselves out during our work life and think we can just get by on 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I think we believe that, because we don’t have any other options when we give all we have to our jobs. 

Sleep is always the thing that seems to suffer, when we stay up late at night trying to do the things we don’t have time for during the day.

My Favorite part of the day…Sleeping

I have to admit, I have always been a pretty good sleeper and am lucky. I can fall asleep pretty quickly, but my problem is if I wake up, I have a hard time falling back to sleep. The wheels start spinning and I have not found a good way to turn that off yet.

I am now having a little more trouble with staying asleep lately due to hormones, if you know what I mean ladies over 50! That part sucks, because I would always say, sleeping is my most favorite part of the day. Scott is freezing while I have the window open, fan on and no blankets!

When I first quit my job, I was sleeping like a crazy woman! I spent about two months just sleeping until I wanted to get up. My block-out curtains are not great, but they do a pretty good job keeping out a bulk of the sunlight. 

After about two months we went to meet up with friends in Oaxaca, Mexico and I thought I had pretty much caught up on 30 years of deprived sleep and was ready to start a new project. 

Well, that was short lived. 

If you want to hear all about why I decided not to jump into another project after my two month sabbatical, check out my guest post at Budgets are Sexy. 

I started working in naps in the afternoon for the next few months, which were great. I love power napping, this is one of my favorite pastimes. I can sleep for about 20 minutes and feel completely refreshed. Scott takes a nap and a bear wakes up in his place!

Sleep award goes to…

Scott is about seven months in from quitting his corporate job and he wins the prize. He is logging in 10 to 12 hours a day! 

Yes, I know, right!! I am not exaggerating, he can snooze like no other. 

He is a pretty solid sleeper and falls asleep easily and stays down for the count. I am now getting up a few hours before him and can get some writing or social media time in before he gets up. 

Again, I think this all goes back to adrenal fatigue, high pressure/stress jobs just sucking literally the life energy out of us. I am not sure why I think that after almost 30 years of working, that I would be “rested” after a year or for Scott after seven months of sleep. 

What were we thinking! It may take years to feel like we are rested. 

Need to Sleep in Action

Here are a few things I am doing to try and help improve my quality and duration of sleep.

  1. No Alarm clock
  2. No appointments before 10 am
  3. Wear blue blocker glasses in the evening
  4. No cell phone in the bedroom
  5. Go to bed at a “decent” time. (I have not been so good about that lately)

 

My friend, Kristin Rainey, is the founder and CEO of Northstar Sleep School which offers online and in-person workshops on how to improve your sleep. She has a great podcast too. Also, check out this article on how important it is to have a wind down routine to help promote better sleep. 

We Underestimate the Power of Sleep

I think we really underestimate the power of a good night’s sleep and sacrifice sleep to do other things. I am trying to be conscious of when I am tired and take a break, nap or sleep in longer if I need to. 

Life Pyramid

Life PyramidA friend of mine came up with this pyramid concept that I want to introduce here and I will expand on it in some other blog posts. He was really advocating getting the bottom three platforms of this pyramid well set into place before focusing on anything else. 

#1 Sleep

Sleep is the foundational platform for good mental and emotional health. Scott and I are really taking this to heart and spending the time we need to get enough sleep. This has been our #1 priority over the past year. Allowing myself to take the time and not rush this part has probably been the hardest part.

About seven months in, I stopped needing naps in the middle of the day and was then only getting about 8 hours of sleep a night. I thought, wow! I must be rested now, but No! I am back to sleeping 10 hours again. 

It was just a relapse. 

I am back at it again. So don’t rush it, it will take as long as it will take. I am still working on the foundation in my Life Pyramid.

Call to Action

So I am still focusing on prioritizing time for my whole health: mental, emotional and physical. Sleep happens to be one of those things that really helps in all three of these things. Therefore, my need to sleep journey continues and I guess it will take as long as it takes. 

How are you prioritizing sleep in your life?

Jen

Jen

I started this blog to journal about my Post FI Life and help me process my transition from working in Corporate America for almost 30 years. I am on a journey to find happiness, joy and fulfillment. And to have a little fun along the way.

Share:

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More Blog Posts

5 Reasons to Sign Up for Etsy E-Printables Course with Gold City Ventures

5 Reasons to Sign Up for Etsy E-Printables Course with Gold City Ventures

October 26, 2022 No Comments

I worked in Corporate America for almost 30 years and finally retired last year at the age of 50. I was burned out and wanted to do something more creative with my time. In my final few years of corporate work, I was exposed to the FIRE community (Financial Independence Retire Early) and heard about creating printables and selling them on Etsy from Julie and Cody of Gold City Ventures. This sounded like the perfect side hustle to channel my creative energy! Here are my 5 Reasons to Sign Up for Etsy E-Printables Course with Gold City Ventures.

Read More »
FI Chautauqua

Be Inspired

September 21, 2022 6 Comments

Be Inspired, Finding Inspiration at FI Chautauqua

Who inspires you?
A friend? A family member? A public figure? A writer? An artist?

Someone who is walking the walk and living their purpose or at least striving for living a more meaningful life?

Read More »
Traveling Light Post FI Life

Traveling Light

September 2, 2022 4 Comments

I love my toiletry bag! Scott makes fun of my toiletry bag all the time and how it takes up half the suitcase when we used to travel.

I would agree.

I am not a big makeup person, but for some reason I really have loads of toiletries. I love them & need them! I love traveling light.

Read More »
Year of the Beard

Year of the Beard

August 29, 2022 5 Comments

Did you know there is a beard “club” for dudes that have longer, mountain man style beards? Yep, it’s true.

Dudes with longer beards will give a little nod and slight wink to other dudes with longer beards. It is like motorcycle riders that will give little waves to other motorcycle riders, UPS drivers acknowledging other UPS drivers, or truck drivers nodding to another truck driver. The Year of the Beard begins.

Read More »
Post FI FLife Explore

Explore

August 26, 2022 3 Comments

Explore! I feel like I am on board the starship Enterprise. For you Star Trek geeks like me, Star Trek represents exploration, learning about new cultures, trying new things that I have not done before and experimenting along the way. Star Trek could be a metaphor for a FI lifestyle.

Read More »