Sunday Story…17 days

It’s been 17 days since my knee replacement surgery. Or, more accurately, knee refashioning. Unfortunately, it’s also been 17 nights since my last decent night’s sleep. Last night my whoop strap told me I was in bed for 7 hours and 40 minutes. And I was awake for 7 hours and 40 minutes. The whoop was wrong. I did manage a few snippets of sleep, but it wasn’t what I needed.

I mention this because it points out the importance of good, healthy sleep. If you aren’t getting restorative sleep, you need to function all day, and it can make performing at any level difficult. In my case, the difficulty arises from pain and throbbing in the right leg as my nerves re-enervate, the muscles begin to twitch and fire anew, and the other bits and pieces knit their way back together.

That’s my excuse…what’s yours? Are you tracking your sleep? Many free apps will help. There are books and other places to get advice on sleeping better. If you aren’t sleeping well, you aren’t performing as well as you could. If you aren’t sleeping well your health is not as robust as it could be. Not sleeping will impede your progress if you are trying to gain or lose weight.

If the problem with your sleep is in your mind (as opposed to your body like mine) you will need to spend time working that out. Here are a couple of easy little “hacks” that will grease the skids to snooze-Ville:

Get up at the same time every morning.

Go to bed at the same time.

Turn off phone notifications and other potential disturbances.

Sleep in a darkened room and wear an eye mask. These are different. Light hitting your skin will change your sleep pattern, and light hitting your eyes will wake you up!

Establish a bedtime ritual.  

Don’t be like me! Find a way to get better quality sleep longer. I know I am!

John Mariotti

775-338-2412

www.crossfitodyssey.com     

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com