The 12 Blogging Questions of Christmas – Day 5 – How Much Sleep Do You Need?

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Fionnuala and I are permanently tired. The joys of parenthood and having very busy lives. Fionnuala, particularly, never stops. She is always on the go, either in the house, or out and about, tackling the million and one tasks required in order to keep the household afloat. I also struggle to keep on top of my work and parenting responsibilities. Then there’s the small matters of writing a book, maintaining the blog, training for marathons etc.

We go to sleep at night and it seems that within minutes the alarm clock goes off, telling us it’s time to get up again. Weekends are no exception as we have Saturday and Sunday morning commitments meaning lie ins are out of the question. I fell asleep on the sofa last night and have been feeling exhausted of late. There may be reasons for this, which I’ll cover in a later blog. Needless to say, we both feel permanently sleep deprived.

The Christmas break is supposed to be a time for rest and relaxation, to recharge the batteries and prepare for the year ahead. But often we work ourselves into such a lather that, by the time January 1st comes around, we are ready for another holiday. We burn candles at both ends and then wonder why we need matchsticks to keep our eyes open. We are a 24/7 people.

Something has to give, and often it is our sleep regimes. I’m as bad, if not worse, than the next person for surfing my phone in bed when I should be getting my head down. Are you insufferable without your eight hours shuteye a night? Or can you function on much less? More? Are you an insomniac? Could you sleep on a clothes line? Leave your comments below and don’t be sleeping on it!

Published by Fractured Faith Blog

We are Stephen and Fionnuala and this is our story. We live in Northern Ireland, have been married for 17 years and have three kids - Adam, Hannah and Rebecca. We hope that our story will inspire and encourage others. We have walked a rocky road yet here we are today, together and stronger than ever. We are far from perfect and our faith has been battered and bruised. But an untested faith is a pointless faith. Just as a fractured faith is better than none at all. We hope you enjoy the blog.

52 thoughts on “The 12 Blogging Questions of Christmas – Day 5 – How Much Sleep Do You Need?”

  1. I don’t need much sleep anymore. When I’m out, I’m in a deep sleep, six hours max. Most days I get five but since it’s restful, I’m not tired.

    I wasn’t always this way. Insomnia troubled me for many years, mostly from work anxieties. I actually took a course that helped me work through my sleep issues and it still works. I know I’m lucky. Those years when I couldn’t sleep were just awful.

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  2. I thought I was a terrible sleeper until I got one of those sleep apps. I’m not sure how accurate it was, but it showed that I was in a deep or REM (dream state) for a great deal of the time. Everything I read said that we need about 3 to 3-1/2 hours of deep or REM sleep, but I couldn’t find anything that said how much light sleep we need. The purpose of light sleep seems to be just to get us to the “good stuff.” So, if I wake up early and can’t get back to sleep, I don’t worry about it any more. I just assume I’ve had my good sleep for the night, and I get up and go. The traditional “Christmas cold” was the sign that I was truly sleep deprived. If you are otherwise healthy, my guess is you’re getting enough sleep, don’t add sleep concerns to your list of things to stress out over. 😉 Have a wonderful Christmas with your beautiful family!

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  3. Sleep? Oh, that’s something I say I’ll catch up on when I’d dead. Of course with my luck, the resurrection will happen five minutes after I die, and there will go that plan.

    Truthfully, I know a guy who can get by fine on an hour to and hour and half sleep a day. Drove his wife crazy. to make matters worse, the kids are just like him. So while mom is desperately trying to get eight hours of sleep, they’re up watching movies, playing board games, gardening (he put up big bright lights in his yard), anything except sleeping. They ended up getting divorced. She didn’t even ask for custody!

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  4. I sleep a lot. I find that I fall apart physically and mentally without it. My brain works better when I get enough sleep. So I usually go to bed around 10:00-10:30. I get up at 6 or 7 or sometimes 9.

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  5. I have always been able to function on little sleep. 4-5 hours a night. I feel more rested with 7-8 but since I now suck at sleep- thank you grief- I go in spurts of sleeping like a normal person and then not sleeping well or at all. I find now it leaves me irritable and foggy when I go days or weeks in this pattern. I crave junk food more and can’t write for shit. Last year I practiced saying “no” to more people/ commitments. This year I may do more of that as well as let go of FOMO.

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  6. Sleep?? What’s that?? LoL
    I too am pretty much a 24/7 person. There’s work to be done in all areas between dealing with my son, cooking, cleaning, work..blog..groceries, laundry.. The list doesn’t end. By the time I lay down at night, I am exhausted. But when it’s time to sleep, I can’t because I’m thinking about all the things I still want to get done. By the end of it, I get maybe 4 to 5 hours a night

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  7. how much sleep do you need, or how much sleep do you get? i need more than i ever get. the depression/anxiety loop keeps me underserviced vis a vis sleep. i don’t fall asleep well, i don’t stay asleep, and i wake early. on the bright side, sometimes, i nap, and naps are utterly glorious.

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  8. 5 to 6 hours of sleep is my normal. I wake without an alarm and am ready to start the day with a nice cup of coffee. I do love the mornings. I don’t understand this madness, just livin’ it.

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  9. Life itself is certainly stressful with all the commitments and the things pulling us in different directions. I pray for Devine guidance as I attempt to establish daily priorities. I still have many things that divert my priorities though. We press on.

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  10. Last night I was up till quarter to three and in the end, went downstairs and slept on the sofa. I am guilty of rumination … of pondering uselessly about worries that I have. Circular thoughts spiralling downwards … rather pathetic actually and very self-indulgent. I need to pull myself together. I hope that when you stop work over Christmas if you haven’t already (?) that you can take a deep breath and slow down a bit … enjoying family life in all its noisy madness. (Then send the children to watch a trashy film with a bucketful of pop corn and have a romantic supper with your fabulous wife!).

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  11. I’m tired is a standard answer to “how are you?” I need at min 7 hours of shuteye. Anything less and I feel jet lagged. I have sleep apnea and fibro so that doesn’t help either!!

    I finally made myself quit looking at my phone every time I wake up during the night… that has helped.

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  12. I’m usually good with 8-9 hours a night. I like to sleep in one time a week but that doesn’t always happen! I used to have insomnia when I was a little kid. It was terrible. But as I got older, we discovered it was because my mattress was a hard, bouncy piece of junk. So my wonderful dad used some of his own money to buy me a new mattress, a super nice foam one. I sleep much better now!
    People like you, Fionnuala, and my parents amaze me! You keep pushing through even if you rarely get enough sleep.

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  13. Ha ha! You beat me to a blog topic, and spoke of almost exactly the same things I intended to. *sigh*

    I can’t stay and chat, though, I’m so far behind my Reader’s Feed I just gave up and only read a few current ones whilst I’m using the bathroom (so.. once a day)… 🙂

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  14. I sleep much better, now that I have retired. Prior to retiring, I would dream about work (more like a nightmare). I found that if I have music on while trying to sleep it helps. Christmas break and/or the holidays should be a relaxing time but for some it is stressful. Get some rest and enjoy the holidays. 🙂

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  15. I had been unemployed and slept til 8-9 most days. Now? up at 5…oy. Getting enough sleep is a challenge esp when I’m a night owl by nature. I sleep fine most nights; but kitty or hubby have their ways to wake me and then I”m a zombie…esp if awoken during REM sleep! I can function on six hours, but prefer 7-8

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  16. I need 8–10 hours of sleep to function well, and I often get only 4–5 hours due to insomnia. Over the summer and while on sabbatical I could compensate by napping in the afternoon, but I’ll be teaching at that time 5 days a week from January to June, and spending most of the rest of my waking hours grading papers.

    I did see a sleep specialist a couple of years ago, who diagnosed mild sleep apnea. He offered to prescribe a CPAP machine, but that seemed likely to interfere even more with my sleep than the apnea, so I declined.

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  18. It’s impossible to sleep where I live. My landlord lives downstairs (my first ex husband) & he stays up late & has his TV on insufferably loud. I live in the hood & of course that’s loud with sirens & cars & people. & my fridge is old & runs constantly & it’s wicked loud. I can’t wait to move.

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  20. I can function quite well on little sleep, even for a few days in a row; however, I really do need at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night in order to feel rested and have my energy levels stay consistent. Since herniating a disc a year ago, sleep has not been kind to me. The constant pain in my legs is worse when I lie down, which makes falling and staying asleep difficult. But then the medications I’ve been on for the past year tend to make me feel permanently exhausted and tired. It’s rather frustrating to have my sleep quality suffer so much, when I know the importance and value of getting enough sleep.

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  23. In the winter I should sleep about 7 hours, in the summer maybe 5-6 hours…but different thing is when will this happened, not very often, specially in winter time I usually sleep less.

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