Good reasons to stay in bed

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- Being sick. Stay in bed until you're well.
- Barely having slept. Call in sick, or work from home if you have that option.

Employers who don't grant some flexibility on these things are evil. Fortunately my current one is fairly flexible on both. So what follows is my own fault.

I have been fighting some kind of bug since Tuesday or so. I think I'm mostly better now (thanks in large part to weapons-grade fresh garlic cloves, eaten raw and chewed up whole), but I now realize I should have taken a whole sick day and stayed in bed.

Not only would I very likely have gotten well more quickly (and not been so tired), but I would have avoided that regrettable condition where I am not operating at full efficiency but don't realize it.

When this happens, I neither fully sense the "energy" I am getting from others, nor optimally modulate the "energy" I am projecting at others.

I end up feeling like I'm not getting all the engagement I should, while at the same time very likely being rather more than usually obnoxious, partly due to poorer modulation and partly to bump up the response level (unfairly).

This is not good for relationships. In fact, I might well turn my back on one that doesn't seem to be going optimally, when I oughtn't (either through feeling unappreciated, or guilty about not being a good partner, or both). And then feel the full pain of it only a few days later, when I'm back to full efficiency.

I already know this. I thought I was doing fairly well. I can't believe I just did it again.

* Pulls chair up to imaginary bonfire, huddles in imaginary blanket *



I go through stretches these days where I seem to be managing well enough that I occasionally forget my limits (even if those limits are gradually expanding a bit over time).

If I'm due to be somewhere, I'll be there. If I've gotten two hours of sleep? I'll be there with enough espresso to kill a horse (a pony, at the very least) and won't be able to function very well, but I'll be there. Honestly, I think most people will be more upset if you don't show up than they will if you show up exhausted and get only a little bit done.

But yeah.... I feel you. Sometimes I just sort of forget to get enough sleep and pay for it later. The thing I do if I'm not getting enough sleep is when I have a day off I'll go to bed as early as possible the night before and turn off my alarm clock. Your body will get as much as it needs.

If you don't mind me asking; what kind of work are you doing, and what's keeping you up?