You Don’t Need to Relax

You do not need to relax before going to bed.

You should fall into bed, exhausted.

Why would you rest… before going to sleep… to rest?!

Sleep was made to relax you and give you all the rest you need.

Every sleep study will exclaim you should not watch television, or look at any screen, up to an hour before bed.

We DO NOT need to “veg out.”

I guarantee vegging out does not relax you, or reduce your stress load.

It might let you forget for a second, but vegging does nothing to eliminate stress, or provide rest.

My argument: Vegging makes you feel worse, more stressed out, because you didn’t get anything done during that time.

• You didn’t do anything productive.
• You didn’t spend time with anyone worthwhile.
• You didn’t sleep.
• You’re not more rested or relaxed.

Relaxing is Hard Work

The Wall Street Journal published an article June, 2010 by the same title.

I expected the article to talk about how hard we have to work to pay for the things we spend money on, to relax.

NOT Advocating Workaholic Behavior!

The WSJ article which exclaimed 30% of Americans cannot relax on vacation because they are too stressed about work.

I’m not saying we don’t need to recharge our batteries, I’m just saying that’s what sleep is for.

Television is Killing Us and our Kids

All to often I’ve caught myself in front of “the tube” instead of in the floor playing with my kids.

I tell myself, and them, I need to relax after work.

That’s a lie.

Play Hard!

Do you know what’s incredibly relaxing?

Playing hard with your kids and acting like a kid yourself! 🙂

Conclusion

I know this was more of a rant than an intelligent or informed article.

I’m aware some people have medical sleep issues.

My main purpose is to attack the idea of relaxing before going to bed.

Spend that time working hard at life, at family, at love.

Turn off the screens.

Let sleep rest and relax you.

Let me know what you think in the comments.