I Finally See Why Sleep Matters

By the time I was 14 and had started high school, I was a midwestern teenager living the life of a workaholic New Yorker. Going to school from 7-3 didn’t cut it for me. I had to be in every club and organization. Choir, drama club, key club…you name it. I had to be physically active. I had to have a social life — with 18 year olds who had cars and stayed out late. I had to be active in my church, leading youth group and attending services three times a week. And more importantly, I had to pursue my songwriting and music career, which kept me out way past bedtime at bars for shows and open mics.

I was getting by on around 4 or 5 hours a sleep a night and I was doing it without caffeine. I had straight A’s and…a lot of my friends openly hated this about me. I was a nonstop go-getter, over-achieving on minimal sleep before I even had my driver’s license. When I was 16, I launched my own handbag line and my shows became more steady. By the time I was 17, I had a serious boyfriend to throw into the mix as well as a ‘real’ job, a position running the choir, and college application stress. Yet, I was still going strong, riding on an ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead‘ slogan.

I graduated high school and I moved to the city where I belonged — where everyone else was as ridiculously high strung as I was — NYC. Matters with sleep just got worse with college. I was taking 19 credits my first semester, working, and playing shows in the city. When I had to leave my very over-priced college, I made the conscious decision to NOT move back home and to get my own place in the city (opposed to the dorm rooms) instead. With ‘real world’ expenses hitting me at the age of 19, I knew I had to make it work somehow or another.

I picked up a full time job, started teaching part time on the side, and transferred to a cheaper school — which I attended full time. During this time, I started a band which quickly took over my life. Sleep became a joke to me. It was a thing of my childhood that, to be honest, didn’t even interest me. People would always conversationally combat my lifestyle by proclaiming their love for sleep, as if I didn’t ENJOY it. Of course I enjoyed sleep! Who doesn’t? I just had better things to do, that’s all.

I never got carded much at bars, even when I was underage. I credit part of this to the fact that I’ve always ‘come off’ as older to people. I also credit part of this to my suspicion that I probably just LOOKED older, more tired, more stressed…

My non-stop lifestyle continued until I finished college last year. I had a brief stint as a marketing director for a company, in an office, before deciding that I wanted to freelance from home. I still play shows and have 10,000 business endeavors always running at once. I still have friends. But now I wake up whenever I choose to. And I always sleep for at least 8 hours a night. Because I can. After I’d been working on this schedule for a few months, I saw a friend who I hadn’t seen in around 6 months. She stopped me and said, “You’re….glowing!”

I brushed her off, thinking she was just trying to flatter me.

“No, seriously. You look….younger, Elizabeth” she continued.

And then it hit me. She was right. Sleep DOES make a difference.

I’m more relaxed these days than I ever was before. I guess making your own schedule and not really having a ‘boss’ will do that to a person…but I think sleeping the right amount also will do that to a person. Maybe it was the last 10 years of nonstop work that put me in this current position….or maybe it as me finally being willing to chill out and take life one day at a time. I’m not sure. But I’m younger looking now, feel more energized, and am more focused than I’ve ever been. And I’d put money on the fact that I’m healthier, too.