(This is a journal-entry, opinion piece, of sorts)
Recently, I think, we have all began to feel the the overly exhausting symptoms of burnout. Personally, I wish I could say that mine hasn’t been too bad, but to be frank, it’s quite awful. I know that sleep is so crucial for emotional, mental, and bodily health but sometimes it isn’t easy to fall asleep. I also wish I could tell you why but I don’t have an answer for you. Dealing with exhaustion feels like a never-ending cycle of trying to go to sleep on time and waking up feeling fine. When I start to become tired, it takes over me and all I wanna do is sleep or even skip my class just to rest.
Rest is a word that floats around in the air acting like it is such an easy thing to accomplish. Don’t get me wrong, I think being able to get some rest is important but it’s difficult to cope with. I love a good nap as well but sometimes naps turn into three or even 4 hours and then you’re ruined physically. I try to limit napping now but lately it is all I want to do. If I don’t want to be awake then I doze back off into my precious slumber. There are ways to go about the exhaustion that doesn’t require constant napping but it’s always the first resort. I used the app Calm regularly for a while but then stopped using it. I’m most likely going to try being more consistent with it.
I hope that if you are so tired that you can’t keep your head up, please try to rest. You must catch up on rest in whatever form that may be. I can’t say that I am caught up all the way when it comes to rest but I am hoping to get there at some point and it doesn’t have to happen all at once. A general rule of thumb that I know is important is to turn off all electronics at least an hour before going to bed but I don’t do that whatsoever. Before I go to bed and even when I am in bed, I’m on Netflix watching criminal minds. I think it started in high school and it never left my system.
I wish I could take all of the advice on rest and put it into motion but I know that it will be very hard to accomplish since not getting enough sleep is deep-rooted in my brain. I don’t understand how s many people can turn out the light and be asleep in a matter of five minutes. I know that I am not alone in the journey of exhaustion and even oversleeping. In terms of oversleeping, I’m not talking about missing an alarm but sleeping so much that I can barely lift my head. This happened in class recently where my head bobbed forward and I had to force it back up over and over again. Please take this as an example of noticing exhaustion and finding ways to get adequate rest. You’re doing great, I promise! We can all work together!