You’re Exhausted and It’s Costing You Money: How to Fix It

sleep

There’s nothing worse than feeling tired, and I can promise you that. Even though none of my kids ever did the keep me up all night thing (I swear if I knew what it was we did that made them sleep all night long from the start, I’d bottle it up and sell it for a billion dollars, but I really have no earthly idea other than the fact that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle and he clearly things we are weaklings), I still get tired regularly.

To be honest, I’ve been someone who needs at least 8 hours sleep per night to feel even remotely good in the morning my entire life. I’ve never been a night owl, I don’t like to be up past 9 pm, and I don’t like to be tired. Yet here I am almost 33-years-old and the mother of four small kids, and I’m exhausted all the time. Perhaps it’s the whole thing about them having lives and extracurricular activities and all that these days. We are out later than I’d like for practices and things, which means dinner is later, which means homework is later since we literally go straight from the pick-up line at school to competitive cheer practice and then we’re all just tired.

Of course, it could be a few other things, too. You see, the problem with being tired all the time is that it affects us much more than we realize. It’s not just bags beneath our eyes we need expensive makeup to cover. It’s our overall health. It’s more colds. It’s a lower metabolism, it’s a greater likelihood we will develop anxiety or depression, it’s more likely we are stressed, it’s more likely we choose convenience over good choices.

Being tired is expensive. It’s buying more coffee. It’s spending more money on sleep aids. It’s spending more money on diets that we can’t seem to make work because our metabolism is lazy. It’s spending money on the doctor and on prescriptions when we are tired and sick and our immune systems are crazy. It’s spending money on doctors to help us get out of a funk. It’s all kinds of bad for us to be too tired, and that’s why we have to find out what’s making us exhausted and how we can change that. It saves money, time and stress.

You don’t get enough sleep

The simple reason so many of us are so tired is that we are not getting enough sleep. We need 7 to 9 hours per night to feel our best. If you’re not getting that, figure out what it is in your life that is preventing you from getting to bed at a reasonable time and fix it. I can’t help you any further than telling you that you have to prioritize.

You don’t exercise

You need to exercise for around 30 minutes per day. Exercising provides your body with energy to get you through the day. It gets your heart pumping and your body moving. It also makes you sleep better at night. If you’re exercising, you’re probably sleeping longer and better each night. There are also dozens of other benefits to exercising; so just do it.

Your diet isn’t stellar

When your diet isn’t great, your sleep isn’t great. You need to make a conscious effort to have a good meal every single day. You need to eat well, you need to forgo drive thru lines, and you need to snack smart. Don’t eat a crappy diet and expect to feel good and rested after a night of sleep.

You don’t say no

There was once a time in our lives when we said yes to most every invitation and we were out all the time. We were tired. We had to learn to say no to people and invitations on certain occasions. Take today (I’m writing this on a Monday) for example. I’m tired. I’m exhausted and I feel gross and I hate that we decided to forgo our weekly Sunday rest day where we sleep in, stay home, make plans to relax and prep for the week. Instead, we took the boat out and spent 6 hours at a place near us called Sandy Hook, a small sand bar in the middle of the Gulf where everyone anchors, listens to music, enjoys a cocktail and just socializes. It was fun yesterday, but I’m hurting today.

You’re stressed

One reason we are all so tired is that we are stressed. Stress is pretty usual and not a huge problem in moderation. However, when you are so stressed out that it affects every aspect of your life, you have some serious issues that require fixing. For example, it’s a good idea to go ahead and see what is bothering you, how you can change it and then get to making it better.

Photo by Getty Images

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