So…How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?

I celebrated my birthday yesterday by working through the day and then “treating” myself to a late Monday night of Netflix binge-watching whilst eating many squares of dark chocolate.

Instead of hitting the hay at my normal bedtime, I found myself yawning at about ten p.m. in front of the screen and, seemingly only a few moments after, looked at the time to see that it was already midnight. No problem; surely sleep would rapidly follow the turning off of the lights. In fact, it did.

At five-thirty a.m., I began my normal waking process of listening to the first twitters of birdsong wafting in from outside the window. My eyes fluttered open to see the dim lighting of the first rays of sunlight casting a slowly growing brightness into the sky. Speaking my words of gratitude and setting positive intentions for the day, I sat upright, turned and placed…