UNITED STATES—Sleep it seems we have a discussion on this topic once a month if not more. Why? Well Americans are getting less sleep it seems every single day. This past week we had Daylight Saving Time where we lost an hour of sleep. Look if you think this column is about getting rid of that, think again. We’ve had it as long as I can remember, so we need to keep having it.

Hell, I don’t want to see the sun rise at 9am during the winter months so we don’t lose an hour of sleep. For people thinking that’s not a bad idea, think again. Kids have to walk to school and criminals tend to strike during the dark, let’s not risk the safety of our kids and people who have to commute to and from work or wherever they go by walking and taking public transportation. Not everyone has a car people.

With that said, pushing the clock forward an hour, completely threw me off the entire week. I do hate pushing my clock back and hour and pushing my clock up an hour. Why? Well it leaves me in a situation where I am CONSTANTLY worried about oversleeping. So I’m tossing and turning all night to ensure I’m not late for work. That happened this past weekend, even though I set my clock ahead several hours in advance to prepare.

The past few days I have NOT slept a single bit. I don’t know what it is, but it appears I truly need to adjust my sleep pattern and what I do before I actually go to sleep. It doesn’t help that I sometimes have a crazy work schedule where some weeks I’m working normal business hours, then others I have to work midnights. On top of that juggling two jobs is not easy. You leave one job to go to another, which is the case for me a vast majority of the week.

So I have to adjust to a new balance. I’ve tried taking minor naps in the day if possible usually no more than 20 minutes if possible, but that barely works people. As soon as I close my eyes, I feel like I’m opening them back up, so I’m NOT getting the quality sleep I need. To me quantity doesn’t matter, even though I know we are all supposed to be aiming for 7 to 8 hours per night. I’m lucky if I get between 4-5 hours per night, and the problem is it is not quality sleep if you’re tossing and turn throughout the entire night people.

With that said, I’ve come to realize there is a few things I need to do. Get off the cell phone, there is no need to be surfing the internet to see what is going on. What is there today will be there tomorrow. If my body is telling me to go to sleep, guess what: I need to go to sleep. In addition, indulging in fluids before bedtime not always the smartest thing, especially if it results in you having to get up and use the restroom in the middle of the night people.

Do you really want that to transpire? The answer is simple: NOPE. Light is another distractor for me, so I always make it a mission of mine to ensure that any lights, no matter how small they are stay blocked while sleeping. This includes the Cable box light, the land light, my cell phone, if there is light I’m trying to block it out.

By doing so it makes it so much easier for me to ensure I can at least sleep without distractions. This might sound strange, but I sleep with a fan on at night. It is NOT because I am hot; it is because I need that sound to calm me to sleep. It has been like that for years and I mean years of years people. Also cutting caffeine out during the day or after a certain time frame is crucial to preventing you from being alert or up at night. Simply put, if you’re NOT sleeping you have to adjust your sleep patter to make things better, even if that means getting on a steady routine people.