It is 4 am and I am not sleeping.

For the last few nights I have been waking in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping. I am not sure if it is the lunar activity, my racing mind that is excited with possibilities and full of things to do or just simply me settling into a new space and so  my patterns are a bit disrupted. There are so many causes of insomnia, knowing when to intervene is important. Sleep is such a important factor in maintaining your sustantive power. The power in you that keeps the daily goings on going. Poor sleep habits can cause an avalanche of health issues starting with simple fuzzy mind and fatigue throughout the day to serious health concerns that can turn deadly at the worst case scenario.

For me I expect I will be back to sleeping soundly through the night by as early as tomorrow night, but if not I will start taking measures to really encourage better sleep. Tonight however, with the bright night sky, curtesy of the day old full moon, I figured why not get some work done while I lay awake with Lily snuggled into my arms. It took a bit to get out of bed to get the computer, but here I am checking off little jobs on my to do list. Not planning an all-nighter, I am sure I will enjoy the last few hours of sleep that I will get before I awaken a second time to go about my day.

As I just mentioned, we co-sleep with Lily. I find this gets all of us a better sleep than if we slept apart. I can sleep more soundly than having the ‘momma one ear open’ all night long listening for her in another room. She is right beside me and if she has a bad dream or other need I can attend to it right away, most often with staying in such a restful state that I barely wake myself. Most families co-sleep in the world, some from necessity and others by choice or custom. Not so in North America, I have had more than one person tell me I will get tired of it and wish I’d never started co-sleeping since how will I ever get her out of my bed without a huge fight.

I laugh and say if my teenaged daughter still wants to co-sleep that is fine with me. However I don’t think she will share our company for that long, I doubt she will never leave the family bed. I do fully believe it is part of the reason why she is who she is, this comfort we all get by having each other close at night allows her to have a level of confidence and security that she probably would not have if she were in another room. I know I sleep better… most nights. 🙂