I admit it.  I like sleep.  I like getting in between my flannel sheets and cuddling down into my mattress and sleeping.  I like it for any of a number of reasons.

Sleep is restorative.  When you have had one of “those days,” it is helpful to take a good book and/or a mug of herbal tea to your bed and rest.

And here is my big admission for the day – I am still marveling at that word admission ever since I read the book Admission and realized it has two meanings – letting in and letting out as in this admission I am about to make.  I crawled between the flannel sheets last night at 7 pm.

No, there was no one else in the bed with me.  I was not crawling in for a night of debauchery or drunkenness, as many of my blogging friends have tried to do this week. I was exhausted.  I read and watched some mindless television from 7 to 8 pm and at 8:15 pm asked #6 to come into my room, make sure I had my alarm set for 6 am and turn out the light – sneaky I know, but that way I didn’t have to get out of the warmth of the flannel.

I woke up, totally without the alarm’s aid, at 5:30 am this morning.  I stayed in the warmth of my bed until 5:45 but that nine hours of sleep has put me in a great mood today.  Yes, I should have been doing holiday “stuff” last night.  No, I have not yet decorated for the holidays.  No, I have not sent out my Christmas card.  I don’t care!  I was tired.  I slept.

I leave you with these two thoughts below.  Neither are mine but both are important.

Giving your body and mind a break

For 16 hours a day, you drive your body hard. You put pressure on joints for hours on end, you expose it to who knows what kinds of germs and bacteria, you put it under major strain and stress, you demand everything it can do and some things that it can’t. Let your body have the other 8 hours to itself. It’s earned it. After a long day, your body needs to heal and recover. Let your muscles and joints take a break. Your immune system needs strengthened and cannot always be stretched to its limits. Your body has a way of letting you know when it’s not getting the rest it needs–it wears down and feels fatigued. And eventually it breaks down. So do everything you can to pay your body back by getting a good dose of sleep. It will love you for it.

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.

– Irish Proverb

So, get a good night’s rest tonight!