Do you Dread Going to Bed at Night?

Everybody talks about dreading Monday, but do you dread going to bed at night?

I have come into contact with people over the past few months that express this very sentiment and it leads to problems sleeping. They go through their day, feeling like they are serving others and doing the right things, but feel depleted at the end of the day and dread going to sleep because the cycle begins again the next day.

Mothers and fathers.

Employees.

Students meeting demands of parents, teachers or coaches.

How do you move past the dread of going to bed at night?

There's a simple, but not easy solution.

Start your day with something you are passionate about!

This will accomplish three things. First, you will be excited to wake up the next morning, or at least have a strong purpose for waking up, as opposed to repeatedly hitting the snooze button. Second, you will be "filling your emotional cup" to start the day, which will serve to keep you fresh and enthusiastic for a longer duration during the day. No matter how your day goes, you will have a sense of accomplishment to start.

A third benefit is that you will be empowering yourself to take control of your life to start your day, in contrast to living on someone else's terms. By starting the day with a passion or hobby, you will be rebooting your perspective of the morning so that instead of waking up with the "dread" to serve others right away (feed the kids), you are waking up to serve yourself before all others.

During an airline safety demonstration, we are told to put the oxygen mask on ourselves first so that we have air while we assist others. The same principal applies to how we start our day.

Could this involve waking up earlier than you currently do?

Yes, unless you are able to impose boundaries on the things that make demands of you (ie: kids waking up, phone blowing up with emails, spouse needs, parent demands). Be honest though, you probably haven't been successful doing this so far.

Will life events still get in the way which prevent you from starting the day with your passion?

Yes and this happens to all of us, however let's accept that these things could happen, but not that they will happen. Prepare the night before to start your day with your passion and adjust if life gets in the way.

When life events do happen, you still have the next morning to look forward to, which in turn will make you excited about going to bed later, instead of dreading it.

Do you still need to dread going to bed at night?

Put the oxygen mask on yourself first to start the day and see how your mood, energy and relationships improve.