WHAT’S SLEEP GOT TO DO WITH RELATIONSHIPS?

Help! There aren’t enough hours in my day!

But what does this have to do with love and romance? Everything! Many of us lead such busy lives, we wonder how to find more hours in an already jam-packed day.

The popular solution: borrow from our sleep allotment—an hour here an hour there, no problem, right?

Wrong.

Before long, our bodies will show signs of sleep depriment:

1. Frequent drowsiness

2. Decreased work performance

3. Memory loss

4. Hallucinations

5. Foggy thinking

6. And a constant desire to curl into a ball on a hard-backed office chair.

Eventually, lack of adequate sleep causes irritability, which might lead to out-of-control tempers with the dog, coworkers, or even spouses. Finding a date or doing acts of kindness for our spouses would be the last thing on our to-do list. This might lead to poor relationships, irrational behaviors, frequent illnesses, and much worse–long-term illnesses.

Clearly, sleep isn’t the place to cut corners. Our bodies require six to eight hours for our cells to rejuvenate—the so-called beauty sleep. Downtime for cell rebuilding is essential.

So then, how can we find more minutes in a day?

How about setting goals?

For example, spend no more than one hour a day on social media. If an hour allotment per day is divided into fifteen-minute intervals, four times a day, social media becomes manageable. Set a timer for every fifteen minutes. Instead of reading everything, choose quality content. Likewise, set a time goal for anything that takes up too much time–texting, emailing, watching TV, video games, talking on the phone, etc.

Yay, problem solved, right? Wrong.

Now, readjustment of the sleep schedule is critical since it’s been discombobulated.

Start by going to bed at an appointed time every day. Once in bed, try one or more of these calming activities:

1. Read a warm-hearted book, preferably romance–hint, hint. It calms our bodies from a busy day, and as an added benefit, it may inspire good dreams. Besides, words scrolling across a page lure many people to sleep. After a few days, curling under the covers at the appointed time will be a cinch.

2. Listen to soothing music. It calms the heartbeat, respirations, and the mind. Here’s a beautiful song for relaxation– Hallelujah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT5u2xVEO5M

3. Watch a Christian romance movie. Yes, they’re sappy, but they’re clean, the plot plays out smoothly, the music is sweet and restful, and the ending warms our hearts. And as an added bonus, we might have sweet dreams.

4. This is really number one–pray. Ask God to grant peace, rest, and a wonderful night’s sleep. Before “amen” falls from our lips, we’ll drift into a dream-filled wonderland.