To Sleep, or Not to Sleep?

Me at four in the morning... think it's time to go back to bed.

So now that I've turned the big… a year older, I'm trying to make a concerted effort to be good to myself.  I happened to wake up at 4 in the morning because, as my daughter will tell you at the drop of a hat, "Mommy has a really small bladder."  This works to my advantage though, because it means I'll wake up at some point in the night, and that's a great opportunity to work!

Or is it?

I'm really bleary-eyed, and I'm thinking that instead of staying up after I put up this post and knocking items off my to-do list (which sounds really tempting and lovely), I should go back to sleep for a couple hours.

I'm torn, because I have a million things to do, I'm loving the pre-dawn quiet, and I've already had six hours — which is a lot for me… but if I'm squinching the sleep-sand out of my eyes every few seconds, I'm probably trying to tell myself something.

This probably sounds like a lot of overthinking for a basic human function, but I'm not always good at listening to my body.  I have a giant scar (badge of honor) on my left shin because I kept doing two-foot-high box jumps when I knew my legs were exhausted and about to give out; and a similarly large scar on my left arm because I did a ten mile run with a partner I knew was too fast for me — my legs were so exhausted and weak, I ate it on a patch of gravel.  And let's not even get started on the lack of synaptic connection between my eyes and my stomach.

So listening to my body… not a specialty.  I'm going to work on it though, starting with a nap.  Immediately.

How do you balance sleep and work?  Are you someone who functions wonderfully with very little sleep?  Do you listen when your body says you need more sleep, or do you push through to make more of a dent in your to-do list?  Where does sleep fall in your priority list?

I look forward to your thoughts… after I wake up again in a few hours.