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The alarm clock screams at Desiree to wake up from her sleep as 6 am arrives. She works up as much strength as she can to wiggle her way out the bed. Her husband, Brian, does not notice. He just ended his night shift at 4 am this morning, so he is in a deep sleep. She hurries and gets dressed. Next, she wakes up her 2-year-old daughter, Asa, and her 8-year-old son, Jamal. By 7:20 am she is out the door with her kids. She drops her son off to school then her daughter off to daycare. By 9 am, she clocks in to work where she is a bank teller. Desiree skipped breakfast this morning and only had a Hershey’s bar for a snack. Because of this, she is drained of energy and starving by lunch time. She gets home by 6 pm. She makes dinner for her family. Afterwards, she washes the dishes, helps Jamal with his homework, takes Asa a bath, settles her down for bed, takes herself a hot bath then lays down to go to sleep. Tomorrow comes, and it’s time to start another busy day all over again.

Just like Desiree and many of you, I am a woman who strives to balance motherhood with the demands of a job. However; one thing about me is that I am a breakfast lover. It is simply my favorite meal of the day! I enjoy it so much that I can eat breakfast foods at night. If I miss eating a meal in the morning, my day seems to be off-balance. Many people are not like me and choose to skip breakfast. I can’t understand how such an awesome meal can be ignored, but I am sure that people have their reasons. However; skipping breakfast can cause a person to miss out on some great benefits.

As a working woman, you wear multiple hats and have a list of duties to complete each day. You may strive to be superwomen by checking off every item on your to-do list and helping everyone that you can. It can be tough to be there for others and handle business when you’re giving out of an empty cup. Though you can’t save the day for everyone and do it all, you should strive to be the best version of yourself. Getting good quality sleep and exercising is beneficial. In addition, choosing to eat breakfast in the morning can help with this. Below are the 3 superpower benefits that you can gain from choosing to eat breakfast.

Superpower #1: Strength

An interesting fact about breakfast is its name. The name consists of the action that is being performed. While you sleep during the night, you are not eating. Thus, your body is fasting from food. When you eat your first meal in the morning, you are breaking a fast. According to a dietitian name Sarah Elder, “the body uses a lot of energy stores for growth and repair through the night.” She also states that “eating a balanced breakfast helps to up our energy, as well as protein and calcium used throughout the night.” Even though you are at rest at night, your body is busy working. Thus, eating breakfast aids with giving you the strength you need to be productive throughout the day.

Superpower #2: Speed

In addition to gaining strength, eating breakfast helps you to pick up your pace. We have all experienced those sluggish mornings. You know, those mornings where we struggle to get out of bed. We drag ourselves from location to location and task to task. A lack of energy can make your day hard and cause you to move around like a turtle. Eating a healthy meal kick starts your metabolism. One of the functions of metabolism is to turn the food that you put in your stomach to energy. As a result, this boost in energy turns your slow pace to a faster pace. A faster pace gives you a greater chance of getting more things done.

Superpower #3: Enhanced Concentration

According to Dennis Newman, a writer of WebMD, he says that “regularly eating a healthy breakfast helps us pay attention, remember, and perform better.” As a working mother, you need to be able to concentrate well. Your brain will thank you for boosting it up by reducing moments of forgetfulness, being more alert, and focused. Because of this, you will perform more efficiently on your job. You will be able to juggle multiple tasks better. The list goes on and on!

Conclusion:

Since I’ve revealed to you the superpower benefits of eating breakfast, I hope that encourages you to consider to stop skipping breakfast. Let’s say that you are convinced now. Does that mean that you can chow down on anything? No. If you want these full benefits, you are going to have to reach for something better than a sugary bowl of cereal or a jelly filled pop tart. I would suggest eating something that has protein that will keep you full and adding food items like fruits, nuts, whole grains or milk.

My favorite breakfast meal is oatmeal. I also like cereals with wheat or oats in it like Honey Bunches of Oats. Adding bananas to cereals and oatmeal is something I enjoy. You don’t have select bananas as your choice of fruits. It can be whatever fruits you like. Don’t forget about considering raisins, dates, or nuts to your oatmeal or cereal. Other great choices of food to consider are eggs, toast, protein shakes, smoothies, and Greek yogurt mixed with fruit and granola.

So, remember that choosing to eat breakfast instead of skipping it is beneficial for anyone especially working moms. Getting the job done at work and taking care of our children all take energy. With all the hats that we wear and duties that we have, we need as much energy, strength, and focus as we can get. 

My soul was desperate for some good quality sleep. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. My family which included my husband, mom, son, and I were at Walmart. It was around the middle of 2018. I had just become a first-time mother a few months ago. Sleepless nights came with the joy of a new baby. To add, I had returned to work after my six weeks of maternity leave. The pressures of being a new mom and starting a new position at my job got worse due to lack of sleep. By this night at Wal-Mart, I felt like I was going to explode. I stayed inside the car while my husband and mom shopped. I had worked all day. My mind was fried, and I could not think straight. When my husband came back to the car, he could tell that something was wrong. I was so irritable with everything he said. I snapped back with every response I gave. It was clear to him that I was drained and an emotional wreck. Yes, I needed some sleep! Bad!

My vision board for 2019

By August 2019, I had joined an online women group called the High Earning Housewives. The leader of the group had given us the assignment to complete by the end of November. The assignment was to create a vision board for the next year. This vision board would display what I desired to see in my life for 2019. I wrote down my vision for areas in my life such as my marriage, finances, and self-care. Under the health section, I had written the words, “prioritize sleep”. I had never made sleep a priority. It was treated more as a luxury instead of a necessity by me. However; after years of suffering from the effects of not regularly getting enough sleep, I was determined to make a change.

If you have consistently placed sleep on the back burner like me, you know the harms and dangers that lack of sleep causes. It negatively influences your body, brain, attitude, and decision-making skills. I’ve learned the hard way. It wasn’t just the period after I had my son that I’ve struggled with getting enough sleep for my body. I’ve dealt with it years before and even until this very day I struggle sometimes. Luckily, I have gotten much better at prioritizing sleep. Though I am still striving to be consistent, I have experienced some great benefits. For all the women reading this, here are 5 benefits that you will love about getting enough sleep at night.

Better Relationships with Others

If you miss getting enough sleep at night, it can cause you to be grumpy to people even the ones you love and care for. According to  Clevelandclinic.org, lack of sleep can cause relationship stress. An article of theirs titled “What Happens To Your Body When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep”, states that “It can make you feel moody, and you can become more likely to have conflicts with others.” When you get well rested at night, you have a greater chance of waking up in a good mood and being emotionally stable. This has a positive impact on helping you to get along with others. You’ll be a breath of fresh air to your spouse, kids, coworkers, and others instead of a grump.

Aids with Weight Loss

Getting enough sleep alone is not going to cause you to lose weight, but it plays a good role in it. If you are trying to shed some pounds, consider this. Lack of sleep causes your appetite to increase, so your more likely to eat more calories. Michael J. Breus who has a Ph.D. reports that:

Lacking sleep, you experience multiple changes to your body that can lead to weight gain. Sleep deprivation causes changes to the hormones that regulate hunger and appetite. The hormone leptin suppresses appetite and encourages the body to expend energy. Sleep deprivation reduces leptin. The hormone ghrelin, on the other hand, triggers feelings of hunger — and ghrelin goes up when you’re short on sleep. Helps You to Be More Alert

When you wake up refreshed after a good night’s sleep, your brain will function properly. You will be able to pay attention, concentrate, and think better. On WebMD, Camille Peri stated this:

Sleep plays a critical role in thinking and learning. Lack of sleep hurts these cognitive processes in many ways. First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently.

In addition, being more alert helps prevent car accidents. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsy driving accounted for 795 deaths in 2017. They strongly suggested that the best way to protect against the risk of drowsy driving is to consistently get adequate sleep at night.

Keeps Your Skin Looking Younger

They don’t call it “beauty sleep” for no reason. Getting the right amount of rest that you need at night really does wonders for your body. Also, according to Michael J. Breus, he explains that:

During sleep, particularly during deep, slow-wave sleep, the body produces more human growth hormone, or HGH, and goes to work repairing and refreshing cells throughout the body — including cells of the skin, muscles, and bone. Short on sleep, you risk losing out on this important rejuvenation — and it’s going to show in how you look and feel.

This human growth hormone helps you not to wake up the next morning looking older. It helps prevent those unwelcoming bags under your eyes and the production of more wrinkles on your face.

Does Wonders for Your Sex Drive

Being sleep-deprived causes your sex drive to decrease. Granted, having sex comes with great benefits such as helping to reduce stress, producing the hormone Oxycontin, which is also known as the love hormone, and improving your quality of sleep. However; when you are sleepy and tired, the desire for sex is one of the last things on your mind. Your spouse’s requests for a night of loving don’t sound so appealing if you are desperate and in need of a good night’s rest. This response to sex because of lack of sleep may be more so for women than it is for men. Chris Brantner of Psychology Today, says that “pregnancy, menopause, and of course new babies, can all cause sleep disorders or insomnia, lowering some women’s interest in sex due to fatigue, stress, or depression.” 

On the other hand, getting enough sleep can increase a woman’s libido. There was a study conducted in 2015 that was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine called The Impact of Sleep On Female Sexual Response and Behavior: A Pilot Study. They discovered that sleeping longer yielded a greater desire for sex the next day. Also, the results showed that an increase in sleep duration by one hour leads to a 14% increase chance of women participating in sexual activity.

So How Much Sleep Do You Need?

The National Sleep Foundation now recommends the following for each age group:

Newborns (0-3 months): 14-17 hours  Infants (4-11 months): 12-15 hours Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours Preschoolers (3-5): 10-13 hours School age children (6-13): 9-11 hours Teenagers (14-17): 8-10 hours Younger adults (18-25): 7-9 hours Adults (26-64): 7-9 hours Older adults (65+): 7-8 hours 

Everyone can benefit from getting the right amount of sleep that their body needs. For you as a woman, getting enough sleep helps to improve your relationship with others, assist with weight loss, keep your mind alert, maintain your youthful-looking skin, and increase your sex drive. It is worth prioritizing! The next time you want to put sleep on the back burner, remember these 5 wonderful benefits!  

Resources:

Brantner, Chris. “The Connection Between Sex and Sleep.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 22 Aug. 2018, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-truth-about-exercise-addiction/201808/the-connection-between-sex-and-sleep.

 

Breus, Michael J. “What Happens Inside Your Body When You Are Sleep-Deprived?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 25 Oct. 2018, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sleep-newzzz/201810/what-happens-inside-your-body-when-you-are-sleep-deprived.

Kalmbach, David A., et al. “The Impact of Sleep on Female Sexual Response and Behavior: A Pilot Study.” Wiley Online Library, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 16 Mar. 2015, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsm.12858.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drowsy-driving. 

 

Peri, Camille. “10 Surprising Effects of Lack of Sleep.” WebMD, WebMD, 13 Feb. 2014, www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/10-results-sleep-loss#1. 

Suni, Eric. “How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?” Sleep Foundation, 10 Mar. 2021, www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need. 

 

Team, Brain, and Spine. “Here's What Happens When You Don't Get Enough Sleep (And How Much You Really Need a Night).” Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic, Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic, 16 June 2020, health.clevelandclinic.org/happens-body-dont-get-enough-sleep/. 

Should you pray while standing up? Should you pray on your knees? Or should you pray with your face to the ground? Which one is correct? When it comes to prayer, the posture of your heart is more important than the posture of your body. Oxford defines the second meaning of posture as “your attitude to a particular situation or the way in which you deal with it.” You must go into prayer with the right attitude. This attitude includes confidence, thankfulness, and honesty. Below, I’ll explain each one:

Confidence

First, you must be assured that God exists. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that anyone that comes to God must believe that He is. If you’re in doubt of His existence, you’re already starting off on the wrong foot. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You have to shake off the doubt and have faith. God is real! Your words are not just hitting the ceiling and bouncing back to the ground. He hears them. 

Secondly, you must have faith that He will answer. Lack of faith can hinder your prayers. In Matthew 21:22, it states "and whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." Of course, this does not mean that anything goes. For example, praying for someone else's spouse would be ridiculous. What you pray has to be according to God's will. 1 John 5:14 says that God will hear you if you ask according to His will. You can be confident that He will answer your prayers.

Thankfulness

Psalms 100:4 advises us to “enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.” When you go before God’s presence, enter with a thankful heart. Everything in your life may not be going well. You could be dealing with some financial, emotional, mental, sickness, or relationship issues. Yet, you can still find something to be grateful for. Giving thanks to God allows His presence to be welcomed. Trust me. It paves the way and sets the atmosphere for prayer! Two scriptures that further speak on thankfulness and prayer are Philippians 4:6-7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

Honesty

In addition, God desires for you to pray with an honest heart. He wants you to be real with your prayers. Worshippers of God are required to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

I remember a time that I went to church furious at a particular individual. I tried to play it off in the middle of praise and worship service. God saw me praising Him with my hands raised in the pew. He told me to stop pretending. I immediately broke down crying and told Him about my anger.

God knows everything. He can detect when you are faking and shaking. We might fool people, but we can't fool God. He doesn’t like our pretending. I want to encourage you to be sincere and genuine in your prayers. This helps to create an intimate prayer life. Let Him know that you’re mad about a particular situation or person. Cry out to him and tell him that you’re depressed. Admit that you’re confused. If you’re happy about something, let Him know that. It’s not a surprise to God. He just wants you to express what you truly feel and think.

 

Takeaway

It does not matter if you choose to pray standing up, kneeling, or lying prostrate. This can be left up to your personal preference. What truly matters is that the posture of your heart is correct. Having the right attitude opens the door to let God in, draws you closer to Him, and paves the way for answered prayers.