Do I Sleep Too Much?

Like any mother, I like a good sleep.

They tell you to sleep when the baby sleeps and I can tell you I rarely miss my chance to have a little afternoon nap while my son is sleeping. He still naps for 1-3 hours most afternoons and I have the dread just thinking about having to give MY nap up, how do children not realise how amazing sleep is.

For someone as highly anxious as myself, I have no real problem falling asleep and can/do it whenever I can.

I would set my alarm to go off during the train journey heading to lectures so I could enjoy a 40-minute snooze there and back. This was mostly due to the fact I was out the night before boozing but even on those days I didn’t, I would grab some zzzz’s.

I once fell asleep on the ferry heading back to Mull one evening, I had found myself a cosy wee corner to have a kip for the 45 min sea journey. I was woken by a member of the crew saying they had docked 20 minutes ago, and they hadn’t noticed me. The ferry was in near darkness and I was the only member of the public still on the boat. My granddad was picking me up and had no idea what I had been up too. That was embarrassing but hey, I was tired.

If I am a passenger in a car, I just cant help it. I WILL fall asleep, I am the worst at going on a road trips as you wont get any witty banter from me, more like some random snores and maybe some drool. The motion sends me off into the land of nod faster than you can say “pass the lavender.”

Call it beauty sleep, nap, snoozing, slumber, siesta, whatever you want, there’s never too much sleep. It just makes everything right again. It makes you forget about problems at work, your ex, stress, and disappointments of the day. Oversleeping is undeniably a blessing.

It hasn’t always been like this, just ask my parents. I was the baby that WOULD NOT sleep, I cried constantly and would be awake for long periods of the night. I hadn’t worked out that at night time we sleep and my mum never lets me forget it.

I struggled with sleep right up into my teens, I would be awake for house through the night. My parents gave me my own TV, so I could entertain myself through the night and not disturb the rest of the sleeping house. I would read, study, draw, anything but sleep. I don’t ever remember being tired and concluding I just didn’t need much to function but now as an adult I just can’t get enough. Its like I’m making up for all the hours I have lost.

I have read that regularly sleeping more than 10 hours a day is called a depression sleep, but I honestly just like the cosy, comforting sleeping I get curled up and off to the land of nod. I must get my 8 hours plus at night or I really feel a drag in my mental health. Sleep to me is my relaxation, my switch off time, something that when I am awake never happens, I am always on!

Also, with 2 young children, a lie in for me is any time after 7am but that rarely happens as I like to be up and ready for when they children do wake. One less thing to deal with and all that.

I just like sleeping, ok! I’m not lazy, I’m not depressed, I just cant get enough of it.

I believe we need to fit our life around sleep, not the other way around. People will definitely hate you, but you’ll be incredibly happy — and well-rested. I know I am.