Saturday night I had the pleasure of hosting an incredibly fun 16 year old’s birthday party that included a super cool game called “essence” where one person internally chooses another person in the room and everyone else has to ask questions about the mystery persons essence to find out who it is ie. “If this person were a flower what type of flower would they be?”.  After several rounds of essence, snacks, two delicious types of cake and much fun and laughter we had a fabulous time beating the crap out of a homemade piñata!

How is it that teen parties can be so much more fun than many adult birthday parties?

This party would have normally ended at the reasonable hour of midnight but of course with daylight savings robbing us of our precious hour we were still cleaning up around 1am.  Needless to say I was shocked when I finally met the pillow a little after two and didn’t wake up until almost noon the next day!  I never sleep that late! I don’t know about you but the week after we spring forward is one of the most difficult weeks of the year for me.   I tend to spend the week in various stages of sleep deprived zombification, so if you interact with me this week please know that my brain is only half alive.

With that said my intention was to write a few tips and tricks on how to survive the insanity of regaining our evening sunlight, however, someone beat me to it.  Massage Book wrote an excellent blog post with great tips on a few ways you can avoid becoming one of The Walking Dead.  Instead of re-writing what has already been done very well I thought I would share:

Don’t let Daylight Savings take away your sleep!

-excerpt of blog post by Massage Book original post 3/5/14

 

Nap the right way

Taking a nap during the day can be great for productivity and fabulous for health, but you’ve got to do it right. Aim to nap for 20 to 25 minutes; any longer than that and you’ll feel groggy when you wake up and you risk not being able to fall asleep when it’s bedtime. (If you really want to get good at power naps, there’s a whole kit to help you get it right.)

Be mindful of the temperature.

Take a warm (not hot) shower or bath about an hour before bedtime, and keep your room cool at night. The drop in body temperature signals your body to calm so you’ll fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply.

Turn off the electronics.

OK, so you’ve heard this one. But it’s the most important and the least followed piece of advice.

Get an old-fashioned alarm clock, so you don’t need to use your phone. Turn your phone, iPad, Kindle, or whatever you’ve got off, and put the devices in another room. Yes, a completely different room.

You may think a phone on silent, hanging out on your nightstand, won’t disturb your rest, but it will. Just knowing it’s there puts your body on alert. It’s far too tempting to reach over and “just check a few emails” if you do wake up in the middle of the night. Save yourself. Break this habit.

Get a massage

Yup. Massage can help with sleep issues. There have been several studies demonstrating the efficacy of massage in people with sleep problems, especially when treating secondary issues that may impair sleep, like back pain, pregnancy and migraines.

For more tips check out Massage Book’s full original article here:  http://blog.2book.com/2014/03/dont-let-daylight-savings-take-away-your-sleep/