I Miss My SLEEP

Age and condition	Sleep Needs
Newborns (0–2 months)	12 to 18 hours
Infants (3–11 months)	14 to 15 hours
Toddlers (1–3 years)	12 to 14 hours
Preschoolers (3–5 years)	11 to 13 hours
School-age children (5–10 years)	10 to 11 hours
Adolescents (10–17 years)	8.5 to 9.25 hours
Adults, including elderly	7 to 9 hours
Pregnant women	8(+) hours

I decided to check out Wikepedia about SLEEP, and it is fascinating, read the whole article for yourself if you like, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep.  Overall it talks about how it is necessary for our overall well being, healing, and recovery.  Here are a few sentences from the article:

"Sleep is a heightened anabolic state, accentuating the growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems. It is observed in all mammals, all birds, and many reptiles, amphibians, and fish."

I get my love of sleep from my father, whenever my mother talks to her mother (my amazing grandma who is 96) she asks if her son-in-law is resting on the couch.  My father is a very hard worker, but always takes time for his naps, and always feels recharged.  I am the same, I love to go, go, go and there was a time when I could not live without my naps, but all of that changed once I started having kids.

When I used to work on cruise ships, the hours were from 6am to 2am most days, of course with breaks in between.  I used to have lunch around noon, and take a nap until my next activity.  It is on cruise ships that I learned that it is good to sleep in 30 minutes cycles, that is when you feel good, otherwise you feel more tired.  I always tried to get in a 1 1/2 hour nap, and if I had the time 3 hours.  When I moved to Los Angeles, I had so many odd jobs besides the night club and 24 Hour Fitness, I was always running around, and without my naps I would not have survived. 

So when I got married, my husband would wonder why when I was home was I exhausted, did not care how I looked, because for me it was my "off time."  I decided to take an amazing Personal Development seminar, and I learned that all my life I had to do everything"Perfect."  What that meant was when I was "on" I gave 100%, and when I was "off" I gave nothing.  In my Yoga, during my performances, I was amazing.  I have always travelled and lived a free spirited life, and my parents were on a "need to know" basis, so I had to portray myself as the "perfect" daughter.  As you can see all of this is exhausting, now I see why I had to nap all the time.  I also realized that teaching yoga for me was a way to get off the gerbil wheel, yes I loved helping people, but ultimately it was my own turn off that I needed most, after that hour I felt ready to jump back into my non stop life.

That is why my Yoga is called Yoga Stop, you can read more about it on my website, www.yogastopstudios.com, its all about getting off the world for an hour, and being nice to yourself.  Everywhere else its about everyone else, I encourage people to put themselves first, its not selfish, its self care.

When I took that seminar, I was asking myself, why don't I want to be my best for my husband and family, and now that I am aware of how I operated, I don't need to be perfect anymore, I just need to be me.

Be You, Celebrate You, Love You,
Yulia
Shabbat Shalom