By Lauren Kovacs

I can’t stress this enough.  Fatigue is a relentless beast. If we want to be as well as we can, sleeping helps.  From marathon naps to a wee kitty snooze, it is a must.  Some days more than one is needed.

Don’t resist the craving to sleep.  Cave in and watch the back of your eyelids. Mid-day naps work for me. Even my dog knows when it is my naptime.   In this sense resistance is not good.  Don’t fight sleep.

I sleep with the phone and I only answer it if it is my kids’ schools.  Most people, with two brain cells to rub together, know I am out of order during naptime.  I have “out of area” numbers blocked by my phone company and if something gets through, I turn it on and off to get it to stop ringing.

Blocking out light and sounds help me too. I have a hard time with glare and sleeping in sunglasses is uncomfortable.  I put something over my eyes. Eyelids are not enough and fabric blocks it out.

A few drops of lavender oil on my sheets can be relaxing.  I also have a hard time clearing my mind.  Boy Scouts, soccer, Taekwondo and many other scenes in life are doing the Tango in my brain all night.  I draw the curtain on that sleep-sucking dance by reading.  A few pages of fiction turn the pages of life.

Listen to your body.  It whispers wellness secrets.  If you are too hot, your body tells you.  If you need to sleep your body will tell you.  LISTEN.  If your body says it needs chocolate…  Listen to it!