Sickness Advice

It seems as though everyone I know has a sniffle, or cough, or cold and or some sort of medical malady right now.  Whether or not this coincides with the changing weather and the fact that we are approaching our first full month of school along with midterms I have no clue but I am leaning towards there being some sort of connection.

First things first friends, take care of yourselves. 

This week I did not have an abundance of work that required me to stay up until all hours of the night reducing my nightly sleep to 6-7 hours but I stayed up anyways.  The result? Whatever cold is surfacing around school found its way into my immune system and...BAM! Sickness.  I hate being sick, with a passion.  Not only because it makes me feel awful but it also significantly reduces my productivity with work and training for my 10k.  I kept telling myself every night that I would go to bed by 11 and then somehow 1 am rolled around and I thought that I could still set my alarm for 7am the next morning--no way, jose. Be smarter than that! You need SLEEP!

Last night my friend Emily, from HWS, came to visit and we enjoyed some tasty tofu tacos with a glass of wine before watching the premier of Grey's Anatomy (which I have to say is looking pretty good this season!)  I started feeling sleepy around 10:30 so I listened to my body and went to bed by 11:30 and slept in until 9.  I cannot even begin to tell you what a difference it made it my day--already I know I am going to be much more productive, happy and attentive to both my work and fun planned for this evening.

When you feel like you are getting run down, sick or overtired think of it this way...Give your body the rest and respect it deserves.  Take time to sleep a little more or drink extra teat throughout the day.  Take a 20 minute nap if need be and rest your brain for a few minutes over breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Midterms can and will be stressful but I have found that you will perform better if you take care of yourself first and foremost. You need not stress yourself to the point of exhaustion and OCD craziness, I promise it will do no good.  I bet that you will get more done in the day and be much more productive if you sleep and take some "me" time each day to relax, reflect and enjoy the simple things in life.