My Sleep Experiment

One of my favorite blogs, The Happiness Project talks a lot about sleep and it's relation to happiness. While I always seem to be yearning for more sleep, I am constantly at odds with the night. I almost resent it because it feels like it's robbing me from the seemingly small amount of free time that I do have. But is it really worth it to get that extra hour or two at night to myself? When I started to think adequate sleep having a direct correlation to my happiness, I decided to do a little experiment: I would go to bed 1 hour earlier than normal every night during a work week. I did did this successfully this past week and let me tell you; I felt completely rejuvenated. Yes, it was hard to turn off the TV, put down the book, shut down the computer (insert your activity here), but that extra hour gave me a whole new attitude during the week. Instead of feeling drained in the morning, I felt refreshed. Instead of giving in to the urge to hit snooze, I got up and didn't feel like I was rushing out the door. I could go on. The point is, until looking at sleep in this way I didn't realize the impact it has on my own personal happiness. Being sleep deprived (for me) really is the source of a negative domino effect.

I've also been thinking about the relationship between my Christianity and my physical body. It's funny sometimes the way we identify some things as "bad" like doing drugs, smoking, or drinking heavily. I think the moral justification of categorizing those things that way is because, "Our body is a temple." In other words, putting bad things in our body, or treating our bodies badly is not respecting his very creation. So how do we decide where to draw the line? Why is being overweight socially acceptable, but being an alcoholic is not? I'm not trying to put overweight people down; some people were not blessed with a hard working metabolism and their over indulgence in food is just more obvious that it is for others. Anyway it doesn't have to be food, but let's take sleep for instance and bring it back in. If I am constantly sleep deprived, am I treating my body as a temple?

Anyway, I just think it's very easy in our culture check our lists; I don't do drugs-check. I don't smoke-check. I don't get drunk-check. That's easy. But it's the "gray" areas that get us. Am I getting enough sleep so I am best able to exude a spirit of peace and joy? I am nourishing my body with the best things that I have been given, treating my body as temple? Am I exercising this body so that it may work out it's purpose to the best of it's abilities?

When I sat down to blog, I honestly didn't intend to get preachy. I didn't even intend to write this last section. However in sitting down to write about my experiment, I started to realize how the physical and the spiritual really are connected. It's very difficult to have one in balance without the other aligning.

* I am planning on purchasing the book, Eat your way to Happiness. Looks fascinating.