Is Being Tired Necessary or All In Your Head?

There has been so much debate on this topic that it’s almost a hard one to touch. I’ve read everything from it’s a chemical reaction in your body to the thought alone of being tired makes you sleepy. So I decided to rip this one apart and find out if being tired was really all just in my mind.

We all need to sleep. The problem is some of us sleep way to much. The average human body can function at max capacity with about 5 hours of sleep per day. Some people sleep less while many others sleep much more. Some of them averaging about 10 hours each day. This kind of behavior leads to a unhealthy lifestyle. When you sleep that much the quality of your rest is affected and you tend to sleep worse than when you only slept 5 hours. You also don’t burn many calories while you sleep allowing your body to store up more fat cells and essentially making you more physically unhealthy. My goal is to sleep the minimum amount and still feel rested and refreshed.

First I want to examine what makes me tired and really analyze the results. So here’s a list of triggers that make me want to take a nap.

When I overeat or simply eat a large meal
When I don’t get enough exercise
When I’m bored
Between 2pm and 4pm everyday
Thinking about sleep or being tired
Laying in my bed

Now looking at all the examples I have given I have came up with 2 conclusions. The first one is that no matter when it is I get sleepy there is always a trigger. This hints at me that there may be more of a psychological connection between my sleep habits and my thinking If this were they case then I would be able to minimize the amount of rest I need in order to get more out of my day.

The second conclusion I came to was that there is a pattern that I follow everyday. This also points me in the direction that sleeping may be a part of my thinking and not always my body telling me I need sleep. So I decided to see what would wake me up and make me alert once I started getting the drowsy feelings. Here’s a small list.

Caffeine or any other stimulant
Doing something that interests me
Working out (I thought this would make me more tired)
Engaging other people
Excitement in general
Just getting up and moving around
Cold water or cold atmosphere
Tending to my daughter when she needs me

After looking at the things that wake me up and bring me back to an alert state of mind, I came up with one conclusion. I can come out of a sleepy mood every-time (as long as I have had at least 5 hours of sleep within the past 24 hours) with one of my uplifting stimuli.

So I decided to give this a try. For several days I would wait until I got sleepy then use the proffered method to wake up and get alert. I would try to stay alert for as long as I could to see if I could pass through the sleepy spell. My results astonished me. If I get back up and started doing something to bring me out of my tired phase and gave it enough time to pass, it would. I would still go to bed at the regular time and feel just as refreshed, if not more the next day.

My conclusion may not be the same as everyone else’s. In my case it was all in my mind and with enough determination and willpower I was able beat all the extra sleep habits from my routine and fight a tired spell all the way through. I actually feel better now and sleep much less. Another thing that really caught my attention is that I am losing weight and getting more things done. I was sleeping about 9 hours per day on average so I have cut my sleep time in half.

If you feel like you have an oversleeping habit give this article some serious thought. Try to find ways to beat that habit and bring yourself back to an alert state every time you get an unnecessary tired. If you give this a try and take it serious you will find the results simply amazing and may start to change your life for the better. Good Luck!