#236 - rest and sleep, not the same

lately i haven't been sleeping well. more than "lately," i think, but i can't really remember when it started. part of it is because i've been busy, lots of things to fit into the day that some sleep gets sacrificed, but apart from that i've had a hard time staying asleep through the whole night and hardly ever wake up feeling "refreshed." granted, i think much of that can be due to my bedtime (consistently an hour later than i'd like each night), i average only about 7 hours of sleep a night instead of 8. but the frustrating thing is even when i do get to bed by 10:30 (so that i get a full 8 hours), i still wake up in the middle of the night and don't get the rest i need.

last week, for three consecutive nights i woke up literally dripping with sweat, it was so gross and weird. like, usually i wake up just to pee or i roll around and go right back to sleep, but i actually had to get out of bed to towel off because i was soaked. it was so strange. and one of those nights i got up a total of FOUR times in that way. it wasn't super hot or anything, and i didn't have a fever. once i thought that maybe it was because i was running out of oxygen in my bedroom so i opened up the window to let air in so i wouldn't suffocate in my sleep... but that can't happen right? i wonder about that, i mean, my window is pretty darn soundproof so that means it's not letting a lot of air in right? but then my bedroom door is open so that would give me enough air to breathe right? hmm... i wonder about that still.

anyway, so the point of all of this is that i'm not feeling rested, even when i do get some sleep. so i've been taking a break. a break from going to the gym. a break from my schedule of free time activities and letting myself couch potato it a little bit. not too much, because i've still got volleyball and tennis and all that, but i'm allowing myself to veg out a bit, like coming home right after work and couching it for awhile, then cooking dinner at home and staying in for the night. i think it's working... i feel like i've gotten myself to a good fitness level with all the weight training and yoga and whatever else i've been consistent with for the past few years and i can allow myself a little "off-season." and i think that's what this is, an "off-season."

if i can indulge for a little bit... if i wasn't me, meaning, if i was 17 again and went on mtv's MADE... i would really like to be made into a pro athelete. that life seems so simple. you do what you're body's meant to do, you train so that you can perform your best, and you get paid for it. but i'm not really that competitive, so maybe "pro" is taking it too far. okay, let's say there was an adult fantasy camp (like those rock star camps or basketball camps), i'd go to tennis fantasy camp and train to be a pro tennis player (or a volleyball camp, but realistically speaking, my height would not allow that, damn shortness). anyway, so when tennis players are on tour they've got a hectic schedule, gotta play matches, do publicity, practice for matches and all that. and what the tennis pro organizations have been complaining about is the lack of off-season. every sport gets an off-season, but for pro tennis the off-season is like only 6 weeks around december. that leaves them very little time for serious fitness training and game-tweaking (it's so hard to do those things in the middle of the tour when the pressure is on to perform every week). so one thing they did this year is they revamped both men's and women's calendars so that there's a longer off-season. i think it's a great thing. not only will it give players rest (especially since they're traveling all year, they can finally stay at home for more than a week), but it will give them time to train, fix parts of their game, and work on new strategies, etc. i think it'll raise the level of everyone's game.

anyway, relating back to my life, so i think i'm kind of at that point where i'm needing an off-season. not an "inactive" period because i've still got volleyball games to play and tennis matches, but right now i can't over-extend myself (maybe that's how i got shingles). instead, i'll do the things i love doing now and if i'm not feeling quite up to it i'll skip the workouts and save them for my "off-season." after all, in order to get the best of your exercise you need rest and recovery (and food) as well right? so today i'm skipping my weight training session and i'm gonna read a book, eat dinner at the parents', watch idol results and go to bed early. tomorrow is volleyball (so i'm gonna have to skip yoga anyway) so i'll just do that, go to bed early, and then maybe by then i'll be rested up enough to get back to the gym on friday. until then, rest and recovery!


ps - i was reading some article that talked about some researcher who created a scale to rate the bizarre-ness of his dreams. then he charted his ratings over a period of like, years, and found that his most bizarre dreams came around the time of the new moon (and not the full moon, as you might guess). weird huh? man i've been having way bizarre dreams, i should chart them too...