Eight hours

I simply can't believe the difference eight hours of sleep a night, every night, is making in my life. Why didn't I do this thirty years ago?

For as long as I can remember I've been a night person, and stayed up as late as possible. Every morning was torture for me as I'd drag myself out of bed, feeling more tired than when I'd gone to bed five, four and sometimes even three hours earlier.

In the last two years I've been a night AND a morning person, going to bed at 11pm or midnight or even 1am and getting up at 4:30-5am to hit the gym, almost every week day. Weekends I'd try to "catch up" on sleep. Just for the record, you can't catch up on sleep. It's something you need on a daily basis.

I've literally been walking around in a sleep-deprived state for years. It's a wonder I've even been able to function. It feels so good not being in a physical and mental fog all the time.

The best side effect of eight hours of sleep is how I feel about food. It's not that I don't get hungry, because I certainly get hunger pains and sometimes even get that feeling of "if I don't eat right now I'm going to perish off this earth from starvation". The difference is that I feel mentally stronger to fight the compulsion to overeat. I feel like I actually have some control over what I put in my mouth. My mind is stronger, and I can reason with myself. Who knew?

The only downside of sleeping eight hours every night is there aren't as many hours left to read blogs. I'm falling behind, and I'm not commenting as much these days. That bothers me. I love my readers' comments. They lift me, encourage me, and make me feel like I'm not in this alone. I want to return the favor.

Somehow I need to find more hours in the day. Any suggestions?