Its time for Self-Care Saturday and today I want to write to you about the importance of sleep. To sleep for at least 8 hours every night is something that I call self-care!

Without our sleep, you lose your concentration, and if you are anything like me, you will get frustrated and get more stressed out.

We need sleep to let our mind process what has happened over the day. Memories are being stored and the new things we have learned over the day is being processed. Our bodies need to rest. When we sleep the muscles relax and out blood pressure and ouls go down. The production of our stress hormones goes down when we sleep.

I know that everybody has different needs when it comes to sleeping and how long they need, but I really believe that everyone needs at least 8 hours.

Now some of you might think that it easy for me to say that you should sleep at night, but I have problems sleeping myself. Its usually only on the weekends that I get to sleep my 8 hours. I have trouble getting in bed early and I go up early when I have to go to campus. This last week my dog Oracle has been sick and both my husband and I have had just a few hours of sleep every night.

I have noticed that when I don’t sleep much it’s easier to get anxiety and panic attacks. I am more vulnerable. So with little sleep going grocery shopping or just going into campus is a real challenge. I have decided that I need to get more sleep because I am important. We all need to spend more time on our self-care because we deserve it.

What do you think? How much sleep do you need?