Sleep

importance and include in planning

I want to share something that deeply has affected me and my life, over the last 2-3 months, a more recent capsule. Life for me has been to focus on work and to support and enhance my future… creating a new way of being and living in the world. A role I have taken with a health club has been requiring 5-6 hours walking/ standing behind 2 desks that are close to the entrance. Movement consists of fitting in some standing stretches. This was to help with oxygen flow and keeping my body from feeling stiff. That is a small bridge to staying aware of my own body as well as the work at hand.

Now, add on top of that, I had been primarily sleeping, i.e. getting rest, sitting in a chair, versus allowing my body in a horizontal position where the blood flow would not continue to work hard despite “resting.” More recently, within a month or so, my body started swelling above the ball of foot area. It progressed to the ankles swelling then eventually the legs. Then the abdomen became swollen. I was thinking that maybe the abdomen swelling was a cortisol topic due the discontinuity with various areas of my life and my not receiving enough quality sleep or rest time. Over the last few weeks, I noticed that I was slower to stand up or sit down due to my knees stiffening. I was carrying around certain things with me - due to temperature and weather changes, my studies and other projects. I was not always was I carrying the same weight - heavy versus light weight.

Days ago, I was extremely tired and concerned to be anywhere potentially unsafe. I thought that maybe I should have a little meal with protein, so I heated a gluten-free chicken pot pie at a Wegman’s grocery store. Not long after eating the food for energy, I ended up in excruciating pain near my kidneys, some in my lower mid-back, and my knees felt inflamed and almost on fire and stiff. So instead of checking into the ER where I have had to go to over the last year related to other lack of sleep topics, I stayed close by to rest, so I knew I was safe, secure, and medical personnel were near by.

So why did I have lack of sleep issues over the last year? I had made a decision to use my cash flow in solving a range of areas in my life, which did not include a place to live. I have been in the process of starting over and this process has had ebbs and flows. It has required me to learn much and adapt as best I as I could to circumstances not always of my own making.

I was able to work on my projects through the night, mainly at a local 24 hour fast food restaurant which uses more traditional music in the environment. Over time, I needed to get out to meet more people in the professional realm, so I applied to work part-time at the health club where I had been maintaining a membership. The clientele have been a special part of my work experience there.

Things changed both with my work and the changes that occurred there, plus the restaurant became more and more resistant to people staying longer than 30 minutes unless they are spending much. I am unable to eat food from there as it does not match the diet requirement I must maintain. So I ended up ordering often a hot tea or coffee. As I was spending less and less time there, I had to find other ways to be safe and secure, despite my options becoming much more limited. I began to walk a lot and go the 24 grocery store in Georgetown where I could buy some food and water, and perhaps visit the bathroom.

I did become overtired as I just did not stop doing and going. My intent was to make the situation workable and like an adventure. The main stopper to this behavior was when I ran into a metal light pole and bruised my eye area. In addition, I had drunk a strong coffee too fast while sitting on a high chair, and fell off injuring the corner of eye. That required an ER visit to evaluate if I needed stitches or tape placed where I had broken the skin. I no longer sit in high chairs or on high stools where I am overtired!

Back to my immediate situation, The edema has gotten out of control. I happened to run into a Chinese woman, previously an engineer, who I had spoken with here and there at the 24 hour restaurant in the past. She spoke to me that a dry sauna is what I needed to warm inside of my body based on Chinese medicine. She suggested I drink warm water. I had read after running into her, that low carbohydrates and no dairy or alcohol would help aid the body. I had used dairy to relax me periodically.

For the last 2 days, I have started and ended my day with multiple sauna stays - until I felt a slight uncomfortable and would then go shower under the harder streams of water coming from the shower head.

Tonight, I am sleeping for probably 18 hours or so, to all my body to rest, process and heal itself. I arranged to stay at a hotel in a quiet area surrounding DC proper. I would be so grateful for my body to heal!

Sleep is a decision - sometimes when making choices of finishing projects or when you have planned your life, or where you have less steady access to sleep. The position to sleep in, should allow the body to do the least amount of work, to allow the body to heal. Healing at quieter times is so important to allow and plan for. Sleeping as horizontal as one can (ie not experiencing vertigo for example), is optimal for many people. Each person has their own individual needs and requirements.

Wishing you good health!