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Sophia Pollais

You’re Not a Fraud, You’re Just Experiencing Imposter Syndrome

Intellectual Health, Mental Health

If you have a teenager at home, you may be familiar with the term “imposter” from the game Among Us. Among Us is a multiplayer game that can be played across platforms and networks that involves communication, task completion, and deception. In the game, you guess who a crewmate is and who is an imposter, similar to playing the live party game Mafia, before the imposters kill the entire crew. This is where the term “sus” came from, as in “orange is totally sus(pect)” to be the imposter. As an imposter, your job is to be on the down low and blend in without being caught.

Recently, I have been feeling very imposter-like, especially at work. It’s been very quiet (knocks on wood) so I haven’t had a lot of injuries to deal with. Doing my job brings me my sense of worth. In the past 3 weeks or so, I’ve had a handful of minor injuries pop up that I’ve easily dealt with and received praise from parents for helping their kids. I graciously receive their praise but inside I’m telling myself “I’m just doing my job” or “yea, but I did the bare minimum” or “someone else could have done a better job”. As a millennial that works with and enjoys mocking said teenagers, in my brain I’m totally sus.

Imposter syndrome is believing that you aren’t as competent as others think you are or as competent as you should be, usually based on intelligence or achievement. It is completely internal and can affect anyone. It’s not telling yourself that you’d like to get more education, it’s telling yourself you have a master’s degree, why aren’t you performing any better than this. It’s constantly doubting your abilities to complete tasks, even though you’ve been doing the same job for five years. It’s only feeling successful when you achieve external validation and beating yourself up when you don’t meet your own high standards. It’s over preparing, over explaining, and working harder than necessary to cover up your feelings of fraud. It’s “being lucky” or “in the right place at the right time” that contributes to your success. And it’s overwhelming.

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Imposter syndrome tends to be a high achiever trait, and approximately 70 percent of all adults will experience it at some point in their life. Perfectionism is a closely related trait, where people feel like they have to be performing at 110% and firing on all cylinders at all times. Sometimes imposter syndrome can be triggered by failure or achievement like getting a promotion. While both men and women experience imposter syndrome, it tends to be more prevalent in women, especially women of color. Society has told women that in order to succeed and be seen, we must be exceptional at all times and show no faults. We must be better than everyone else in order to deserve our position. This is simply not true. Our fears are valid, we are imperfect beings, we are human. We can only do our best with our resources and knowledge we have and learn from our mistakes and reach for our goals.

Last year (2019) was the first time I did an end of year reflection and review. I was amazed at the things I had accomplished and survived through, even though many of the items on my list were small. Unlike previous years when I finished big things like grad school or getting my first big girl job, I was still super proud of myself for having things like, I finished my third half marathon, or I got a dog. Toward the end of 2020, one of the tasks my therapist and I came up with was to start celebrating small victories and accomplishments, even if it was just doing the dishes. High five yourself, do a little happy dance, come up with a reward system that works for you. Sometimes I get so caught up in the future and things I have not yet accomplished that I feel worthless for not starting those tasks yet. It is a vicious cycle of feeling like you’re not enough and wanting to be so much more.

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Here are some things you can do to bring yourself out of an imposter period.

·         Staying focused on your own achievements and only compare you to yourself is one way to overcome imposter syndrome. Doing a regular reflection and review can be helpful, whether it’s daily, monthly, or yearly.

·         Share your feelings with a trusted friend. When you don’t share, the feelings gnaw at you. Plus, a friend can help you recognize your abilities.

·         Take smaller bites. Just because you can chew with a full mouth does not mean you’re doing it gracefully or that you could keep doing that meal after meal. Smaller bites make big goals or projects easier to digest and help you recognize the small successes you have achieved.

·         Stop comparing yourself to others. I hear this one constantly and honestly, it’s almost not helpful anymore. I know not to compare to others because everyone has different life goals. What becomes difficult is seeing everyone’s “normal” life on social media and comparing to that. Most of the time, people only post the good and the best things in their life, leaving behind the negative and the average. Limit your time on social media. If you’re having a particularly difficult imposter time, get off of social media entirely

1.       https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/imposter-syndrome

2.       https://www.verywellmind.com/imposter-syndrome-and-social-anxiety-disorder-4156469#what-is-imposter-syndrome

3.       https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2013/11/fraud

4.       https://www.npr.org/2021/01/22/959656202/5-steps-to-shake-the-feeling-that-youre-an-impostor

You’re Not a Fraud, You’re Just Experiencing Imposter Syndrome

Intellectual Health, Mental Health

If you have a teenager at home, you may be familiar with the term “imposter” from the game Among Us. Among Us is a multiplayer game that can be played across platforms and networks that involves communication, task completion, and deception. In the game, you guess who a crewmate is and who is an imposter, similar to playing the live party game Mafia, before the imposters kill the entire crew. This is where the term “sus” came from, as in “orange is totally sus(pect)” to be the imposter. As an imposter, your job is to be on the down low and blend in without being caught.

Recently, I have been feeling very imposter-like, especially at work. It’s been very quiet (knocks on wood) so I haven’t had a lot of injuries to deal with. Doing my job brings me my sense of worth. In the past 3 weeks or so, I’ve had a handful of minor injuries pop up that I’ve easily dealt with and received praise from parents for helping their kids. I graciously receive their praise but inside I’m telling myself “I’m just doing my job” or “yea, but I did the bare minimum” or “someone else could have done a better job”. As a millennial that works with and enjoys mocking said teenagers, in my brain I’m totally sus.

Imposter syndrome is believing that you aren’t as competent as others think you are or as competent as you should be, usually based on intelligence or achievement. It is completely internal and can affect anyone. It’s not telling yourself that you’d like to get more education, it’s telling yourself you have a master’s degree, why aren’t you performing any better than this. It’s constantly doubting your abilities to complete tasks, even though you’ve been doing the same job for five years. It’s only feeling successful when you achieve external validation and beating yourself up when you don’t meet your own high standards. It’s over preparing, over explaining, and working harder than necessary to cover up your feelings of fraud. It’s “being lucky” or “in the right place at the right time” that contributes to your success. And it’s overwhelming.

Imposter syndrome tends to be a high achiever trait, and approximately 70 percent of all adults will experience it at some point in their life. Perfectionism is a closely related trait, where people feel like they have to be performing at 110% and firing on all cylinders at all times. Sometimes imposter syndrome can be triggered by failure or achievement like getting a promotion. While both men and women experience imposter syndrome, it tends to be more prevalent in women, especially women of color. Society has told women that in order to succeed and be seen, we must be exceptional at all times and show no faults. We must be better than everyone else in order to deserve our position. This is simply not true. Our fears are valid, we are imperfect beings, we are human. We can only do our best with our resources and knowledge we have and learn from our mistakes and reach for our goals.

Last year (2019) was the first time I did an end of year reflection and review. I was amazed at the things I had accomplished and survived through, even though many of the items on my list were small. Unlike previous years when I finished big things like grad school or getting my first big girl job, I was still super proud of myself for having things like, I finished my third half marathon, or I got a dog. Toward the end of 2020, one of the tasks my therapist and I came up with was to start celebrating small victories and accomplishments, even if it was just doing the dishes. High five yourself, do a little happy dance, come up with a reward system that works for you. Sometimes I get so caught up in the future and things I have not yet accomplished that I feel worthless for not starting those tasks yet. It is a vicious cycle of feeling like you’re not enough and wanting to be so much more.

Here are some things you can do to bring yourself out of an imposter period.

·         Staying focused on your own achievements and only compare you to yourself is one way to overcome imposter syndrome. Doing a regular reflection and review can be helpful, whether it’s daily, monthly, or yearly.

·         Share your feelings with a trusted friend. When you don’t share, the feelings gnaw at you. Plus, a friend can help you recognize your abilities.

·         Take smaller bites. Just because you can chew with a full mouth does not mean you’re doing it gracefully or that you could keep doing that meal after meal. Smaller bites make big goals or projects easier to digest and help you recognize the small successes you have achieved.

·         Stop comparing yourself to others. I hear this one constantly and honestly, it’s almost not helpful anymore. I know not to compare to others because everyone has different life goals. What becomes difficult is seeing everyone’s “normal” life on social media and comparing to that. Most of the time, people only post the good and the best things in their life, leaving behind the negative and the average. Limit your time on social media. If you’re having a particularly difficult imposter time, get off of social media entirely

1.       https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/imposter-syndrome

2.       https://www.verywellmind.com/imposter-syndrome-and-social-anxiety-disorder-4156469#what-is-imposter-syndrome

3.       https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2013/11/fraud

4.       https://www.npr.org/2021/01/22/959656202/5-steps-to-shake-the-feeling-that-youre-an-impostor

Saying Yes and No in Codependency

Mental Health

This article has been a long time coming. It’s been on my list since I first heard about Cassandra’s dream of Positively Balanced and bringing resources and content to women far and wide. I haven’t created enough space in my soul for it to expand and be shared until now. I’ve started a few times and closed my laptop without saving on PURPOSE because I didn’t feel like I was ready and my writing was garbage. Today, I sit at my keyboard ready to admit a truth to someone more than myself and my closest circle of trusted people.

Hi, my name is Sophia, and I am a recovering codependent. I am one year and three months into recovery and learning new things about myself and my codependency every day.

That felt amazing to type. I said it out loud to myself as affirmation. Codependency is a sincere struggle to me. I have realized how it has controlled much of my life to this point, as well as how it is shaping who I will become and how I will make decisions to get there.

Melody Beattie is one of the most prominent writers on codependency to date, writing her first book “Codependent No More” in 1986, which I have linked below. In this book she defines codependency as “one who lets another person’s behavior affect him or her, and who is obsessed with controlling that person’s behavior.” This is her definition, but she encourages those exploring codependency to come up with their own definition of how codependency affects them personally. I define codependency as a progressive disorder related to a person’s reactionary behavior toward another person’s behaviors and/or habits. The obsession to control, change, or manipulate the other person’s habits often creates no actual change and results in neutral or negative effects in the codependent’s life.

Codependency is multifaceted and definitely can’t be wholly addressed in one article. I’d like to start with a simple aspect that has a big impact on me personally. One of the things I struggle with in my codependency is saying yes and no to different opportunities that present themselves. When someone asks for my help on a project or to move something, I almost always say yes. I mean, there is no filter I just say yes because that is what is expected of me. This has been hard to teach myself to think about the task being asked of me and ask questions like “am I genuinely doing this because I want to? Is there any benefit to me? Is this part of my job? Do I have time? Is this person trying to take advantage of me?” If I can respond positively to questions like these, I say yes to the person. Sometimes it takes me a long time to process my response and it looks like I am stalling, but I’m just doing what’s best for me. This is hardest with people I’m closest with, like my mom. Do you know what it’s like to process a question like “can you stop at the store and grab milk on your way over” just because your mom asked you to? It’s a ridiculous feeling because I am not going to tell my mom no to that. But it IS a good space to practice your filtering questions.

For me, saying no is a different problem entirely. After a lifetime of saying “no” to things because I wanted to meet OTHER PEOPLE’S expectations of what I should be and look like, I have wrestled with myself to do the things I want. I have waited for permission to do things because heaven forbid, I have a mind of my own. I have walked on eggshells around people to not offend with my voice, telling myself “no, it’s better for you to remain uncomfortable than make other people uncomfortable.” And of course, my personal favorite and one I am most guilty of on the daily, “no, this is fine.” I have never sent food back at a restaurant in my life. I know on paper and in conversations in my head that these situations are ridiculous, but when I am actually experiencing them, my brain reverts back to its lizard self and it’s fight or flight ONLY. No rationalization or relating to previous experience, only run.

I write this as we are in the holiday season. The season of giving to others and meeting expectations can be very trying to codependents. I have seen several posts on social media about how COVID-19 is a great excuse to tell people “no” this year. Being more mindful of my actions and words, I know this is not the best thing to do because, well, it’s an excuse. Take time to reflect on your responses as we come into a new year, a new season, and a new perspective of yourself.

In the past year or so of knowledge digging, reading copious amounts of books, therapy, and reflection, I have taken steps forward and steps backward. I have changed my perspective in several relationships and habits. I have worked on putting the focus of my response to what should be easy “yes” and “no” questions on me instead of the other person. It is still a daily effort for me. There are a lot of things I haven’t even addressed yet and haven’t found the courage to do so. If you’re looking for your “thing” today to help you say no, or yes, or complete the task, or get out of a situation, let this be it. 

Losing Control and Regaining it

Mental Health

This past week has been… one for the books. I have fully transitioned into the next season of sports, which apparently made my brain switch gears from being on top of everything and productive to “how do I do my job again?” The weather has fully changed so my normal running schedule is no longer 9am and 70°, it’s cold enough that I shorten my walk with my dogs and question if I really need to stay on my training schedule for that half marathon that is… let me check my schedule really quick… on Sunday. Where has my time gone? I swear this semester just started, my training schedule just started, the pandemic just started. And somehow, we’ve finished the first week of November. I am exhausted.

I had started two articles prior to this one, well in advance of a previous due date. Which I still missed. They’re still in my drafts. I was rolling on them and the second I looked away, my momentum was completely lost. I’ve had one of them left open on my laptop for at least a week, adding maybe one new sentence or moving a few words around. Up until this morning, I was still determined to finish writing it for this deadline. But then, while in the shower listening to a Brené Brown podcast, I realized that nothing is more important than this exact moment. I have been procrastinating on not tasks, but processing. Processing information, processing emotions, processing my place in space at this time. I have said “I’ll deal with it tomorrow” too much. Tomorrow turns into next week, and next week turns into next season. So, let’s do some processing.

I am so incredibly grateful that my school made it through the fall season practically unscathed by the coronavirus. We did everything within our control that we could. We had all the practices and played all the games. Many schools in our area were not so lucky. I am also grateful for my close friends and family’s health. They have all been healthy and have continued limiting unnecessary contact and wearing masks. We have been lucky to have had this experience, because as Captain Picard states, “it is possible to make no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.” For a new normal, life has been very good, yet still seemed well out of my control. When I reflect on the fall season, we did everything we could, and that’s all we could ask for.

Lesson: Control the things you can, let go of everything else.

My race season was cancelled, so I stopped running. I kept telling myself, you can be even better next year if you keep running now, but that wasn’t enough to get me off the couch. I kept saying this over and over, becoming more disappointed in myself. I love running, even though I’m not fast, because it made me feel great and helped relax other aspects of my life. Here I was, not doing the one thing that I knew I needed to get over a hump. One of the local race organizers recognized the need in our community to replace the fall full- and half-marathon schedule and as soon as I saw it, I signed up. I signed up knowing that I wouldn’t be able to get a full training cycle in before the race. I signed up knowing I hadn’t moved my body consistently in almost three months. I signed up saying screw it, you’re getting a half marathon in this year and I don’t care if you walk it. I signed up. And that was it. I started running barely three miles three times a week. I pushed myself to the limits of what I felt I could handle instead of following a training plan. By the time I synced up with my normal training plan, I realized I had been pushing myself harder than I needed to on shorter runs but needed to keep stretching out my long runs. I felt more prepared going into the race. I didn’t complete all my training, I completely forgot about cross training or the extra stretching and yoga I had planned to make this season the best yet; I just ran. For the first time, I trained without headphones. I just ran to process, to be in the moment. And it has been my best season yet.

Lesson: Commit to a minimum percent, and it might carry you through to great success. If nothing else, you started and that matters.

By the time this is published, the election will be over. It came right after the half marathon I ran and just as I started my period, a perfect storm of binge eating. My brain said, “you have been working really hard,  you need to replenish those calories you burned” while simultaneously whispering “oh yea and this thing is happening and you find it very stressful and we just can’t deal with stress right now, eat that Halloween candy. All of it.” I’m sure you can picture the rest. I’m not here to debate candy corn, but I ate an entire bag over the course of 2 days. And pretzles. And cheese crackers. By the time I regained control, my mouth was sore from the amount of sugar I had consumed, I felt like garbage, and thought I looked like a garbage bag as well. Thank the Lord my therapist started taking in-person appointments again and ended our session asking about a few things, including binge eating. I was honest, I told her I just ran a half-marathon plus stress plus period, but it was enough of a wake-up call to recognize “hey, you are binge eating. And in case you were wondering, you’re covering this in class this week, so check out that slide!” With a popcorn kernel in my candy rotted teeth.

Lesson: Recognize where you’re having trouble, seek help, and rise up to meet a better path.

These last many months have been “unprecedented” as I keep hearing repeated over and over, weird, trying, wholesome, a gift, a sadness, a frustration; a multitude of things that can be hard to process. There is so much going on that it’s hard to keep track of anything, let alone yourself and your family. Seek serenity. Make changes in what you control and recognize what falls outside of that; let it go. Commit to start. The first step of running a race is putting on your shoes on day one of training. Set yourself up for success with the tiny steps that take you to your goals. And when you are unsure of how to get there, ask a friend, seek a professional, and explore the amazing variety of ways to get there. If you spend three hours exploring and planning ways to achieve your goals or even just WHAT your goals are you have started something in your control. Take that moment when you realize it and RUN.

4 Tips to Improve Your Sleep Health Tonight for FREE

Physical Health

Did you know that many sleep problems can be influenced by changing habits? As the world we live in became more industrialized, there were suddenly more hours in a day to be productive. It was possible to work later in the evening and earlier in the morning, even overnight. We also had more hours in a day to be entertained. Fast forward to the technological advancements of modern times and we have 24/7 access to whatever you could need at the tips of your fingers.
While the improvement in productivity and “life” as we know it has been drastic and we couldn’t imagine going to bed because the sun disappeared, we cannot continue to ignore the health deficits that have come about because our natural sleeping process has been disturbed.

Here are 4 simple and FREE options that you could try tonight to improve your sleep health.

Habit change can be complex and takes time to solidify into new habits. I am personally working on incorporating this list into my nightly routine. Some nights are more successful than others.
Make your changes as you can handle them, and if you’re going through a difficult time or major transition (like a new baby) be gentle with yourself and take care of your priorities first and foremost.

Lower lights and put down the phone

Your body’s natural wake drive is influenced by light. It helps wake us up and keep us awake.
This is just as true in the morning as it is at night. Our ancestors were limited in activity by the sun going down; now, we just turn on the lights and keep going. Light inhibits our body’s natural production of melatonin. Melatonin levels in the brain start rising about 2 hours before bedtime and help to put us in a state of quiet restfulness. The later we expose our eyes to bright lights like cell phones and overhead lights, the later melatonin production starts, and the more sleep is delayed. Studies have also found that the quality of sleep is also diminished without the proper levels of melatonin because it allows us to go through all the stages of sleep for the full amount of time.

What to do:
· Set up your nightly routine so you get at least 30 minutes with no screens before sleep.
· After dark, turn on blue light filters on your phone, computer, and tablet
· Dim lights, decrease number of lights, or switch out blue hued bulbs for yellow
· Use blackout curtains to keep your room dark until you need to get up

Lower the temperature of your room

Before we had reliable sources of heat to warm our homes, nights would be very cold. The
temperature of your room affects your core body temperature, and we want it to drop by 2-3 degrees while we sleep. The part of your brain that senses your body temperature is right next to the area that controls your internal clock. At night when your temperature naturally lowers, they communicate and the part that controls your clock adds that information to the lack of light.
Lower temperature and less light both stimulate the release of melatonin. Our bodies are not passive in lowering temperature; it uses the surface of our skin to reduce core body
temperature, just like when we sweat. Our face, feet, and hands are most efficient at this. When you get really warm at night, what’s the first thing you do? Poke a foot out or bring your hands above the covers. This allows us to keep the core temperature lower, helping us fall and stay asleep. 65°F is about ideal given standard bedding and clothing. If this is a drastic drop from your current holding temperature at night, adjust 3-5 degrees at a time. It can get too cold, though. Unless you have clothing and/or bedding to compensate, 55°F can be harmful rather than helpful to sleep.
What to do:
· About 30 minutes before sleep, decrease the temperature of your sleeping area
· Splash some water on you face using your hands to cool your face
· Use layers of bedding so you can adjust nightly if needed.

Avoid coffee late in the day

Caffeine is the most used psychoactive stimulant in the world. It has a half life of five to seven hours. That’s right, the coffee that has 80 mg of caffeine you had at 8 am is still circulating 40 mg of caffeine circulating in your system around 2 pm. Then you have another cup to beat the afternoon slump so when you get home and finish dinner at 7 pm, there’s still 60 mg floating around, preventing sleep hormones from binding to receptors and giving us a desire to sleep.
So you stay up later, which makes you more tired in the morning because you didn’t meet your sleep needs so you have another coffee. Rinse and repeat. While caffeine can definitely reduce our sleep drive or we just like the taste, if timed incorrectly it can impede our sleep health.
What to do:

· Avoid caffeine within 10 hours of sleep
· Create good health hygiene to prevent the feeling of needing caffeine
· Remember, de-caffeinated is not the same as non-caffeinated.

Skip the nightcap

While alcohol is a sedative, it does not enhance your sleep experience. Yes, it can make you sleepy. But alcohol sedates your brain and its necessary processes, not just you being awake.
The brainwaves observed under the influence of alcohol are more similar to being under light anesthesia, not of getting adequate sleep. In fact, it can keep you from the stage of sleep called REM (rapid eye movement) when you dream and your brain processes things. Alcohol also prevents you from staying asleep, sprinkling the night with bouts of wakefulness that you don’t remember. Like caffeine, alcohol can take several hours to be removed from your system, so it’s best to avoid it late at night.

What to do:
· Use good sleep hygiene as a tool to fall asleep, not alcohol
· Avoid a regular schedule of alcohol in the late afternoon and early evening
· The occasional drink is ok; understand that alcohol will affect sleep.

Citation:


Walker, Matthew P. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Scribner, an
Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2018.
Littlehales, Nick. Sleep. Penguin, 2017.

Circadian Rhythm: What it is and How it Works

Physical Health

A circadian rhythm, not to be confused with the cicada rhythm of late summer, is the natural wake-sleep cycle your body follows. Not the one that you force your body into, but the one you experience when you go camping on a non-electric site. It’s a step back in time, a look at what our primitive ancestors did without a reliable source of artificial light. The sun rules your world. You wake with it, you wind down without it. It provides stimulus to wake up and stay awake. I was thinking recently of how much I related to Wall-E when he rolls out of his home rather ragged, pulls out his solar panel, and sits in the sun until he’s ready. As more of a night owl, I need this exposure to sunlight to really wake up. My circadian clock runs a little slow and it charges on sunlight. What does this look like?

Here is an example of a circadian rhythm. It’s just a simple sine wave of equal height and width that represents our wakeful drive. It’s highest a little after you wake up and decreases through the day. It rises while you’re asleep so when it’s time to wake up, your body has the drive to do it. This rhythm doesn’t change and it shifts only with the sun. When you travel halfway around the world or just to the next time zone, your circadian rhythm can be affected. Your body wants to adjust to the natural sun cycle, even when we can’t see it’s warm glow. It doesn’t matter if you hole up in your basement and don’t see the light of day for two weeks while you quarantine; your body still experiences this rhythm. Plants do this too. They raise their leaves to greet the sun, their flowers bloom in daylight so pollinators can do their work. Even when kept in a dark room, they still move in time with their internal clock. Unlike plants, though, we humans have jobs and those jobs don’t always match up with our personal circadian rhythms.

For example, during the school year my typical schedule is 12pm to 7pm. This allows me to wake a little later, get some sunshine in, take my time with getting ready, and naturally stay up a little later when I get home. I sleep wonderfully on this schedule. In the summer and weekends, my schedule shifts a little. Right now, I have to be at the school by 7am so I have to wake up at 5:15am. This is way to early for me personally. I can do it, but I don’t perform as well and it takes me quite a while to be fully awake and present. The same goes for early risers. They wouldn’t do as well with my late schedule during the school year but would thrive on my summer hours. Unfortunately companies can’t accommodate everyone, and most don’t think to do so in the first place.

The second simple part of sleep is our sleep drive. While our wake drive doesn’t change, our sleep drive does. When we wake up first thing in the morning after a good night’s rest, it’s at its lowest. It slowly builds throughout the day. If we’re on a regular schedule, it peaks at a time that the circadian rhythm is lowest. This makes the perfect combination of low wake drive and high sleep drive. We can of course fight the urge to sleep with stimulants like caffeine and artificial light or reduce our sleep drive by taking a nap.

Have you ever pulled an all-nighter working on a big project? That feeling of dragging from 12 to 4am? Needing a cup of coffee and all the lights on, maybe some loud music? Your sleep drive is continuing to climb and your wake drive is still pretty low but climbing. Like magic, when it comes time for you to normally wake up, you aren’t so tired, you might call it a second wind. Your wake drive is now at its peak. Voila! You made it through the night. The sun is out and you can probably make it through the day. It’s certainly not recommended to go without sleep for that long, but there is a science behind how you made it.

Blue light has become a very popular term in regard to eye strain and sleep. Specifically, blue light is a specific frequency of light that stimulates our brain into staying awake. The sun gives off tons of it which, according to our primitive ancestors, told us time of day and when we should be doing things. Because we now have technology at our fingertips at all hours of the day, we are receiving an excess of blue light at times that we wouldn’t normally have any light at all. I’m talking about your before bed Facebook scrolling, tv watching, email checking (which is another talking point on its own). Even after-dinner screen time, depending on what time you eat dinner and go to bed. Experts say you should reduce or eliminate screen time within two hours of sleep. Use this time to read a book or listen to music. Allow your natural sleep and wake drives take their place. While these are very generalized tips and points of learning, they apply to everyone.

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From my personal experience when I give myself a rest from the screen, I sleep better and perform better the next day. I feel more refreshed, more myself. We live in a world that never sleeps and currently in unknown times. We can help ourselves by taking control of the things we can change, and understanding the natural processes that take place within us.

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