Okay so only a day after identifying the monkey wrench in my plans, I’m browsing Facebook and lo and behold there’s an article posted to one of my groups that seems to explain my issue. Usually I’m not one for reposting as I’d like to believe I’m witty, talented, and educated enough to come up with my content but occasionally if there’s something that catches my eye I reserve the right to share. I mean after all, we’re in this together right? Whether a mom already working from home, or if you’re like me seeking that experience, or even if you have no kids and you just want to break free from the rat race we’re all working towards that goal of financial freedom. Below are some excerpts from the article. Click the link to view the original source.

Insomnia, Work And Money – Mary Kearl

“There is a two-way tie between sleep and mental health,” says Lawrence J. Epstein, M.D., former president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and author of The Harvard Medical School Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep. “Good sleep allows you to function at your best, but if you’re not feeling your best, that affects your sleep.”

The statistics aren’t good: One in three adults experiences insomnia–women more so than men–and risk increases with age. And given recent reports of sleep patterns, the economy certainly isn’t helping. In the National Sleep Foundation’s 2010 Sleep in America Poll, one-third of adults indicate they’re getting less sleep on workdays and weekends than they feel they need, and one-fourth say their current work schedule doesn’t allow them to get enough sleep.

Experts agree that while requirements are variable, the average adult should sleep somewhere between seven and nine hours per night. Slumber is a daily necessity alongside food and water but, according to Nancy Collop, M.D., the director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center, most Americans shortchange themselves.

With the current trends in joblessness, company cutbacks and financial insecurity, Collop says an increase in work-stress-related sleep issues is logical. An irony, though, is that “sleep deprivation makes you less interested and less motivated to do work.”

One California mother of a three-year-old, Aimee, 32, says she feels pressure to move up the corporate ladder to better provide for her child. In fact, the product quality assurance manager is going to graduate school part-time in hopes of career advancement. The result, she says, is that she sleep-walks during times of stress and says she finds it difficult to focus the next day at work.

Quality rest works to repair, revise and renew brain function; it is crucial for performance, learning and memory, says Archibald D. Hart, Ph.D., senior professor of psychology at Fuller Graduate School and author of Sleep, It Does a Family Good: How Busy Families Can Overcome Sleep Deprivation. “If you under-sleep by one hour a night, you will see a cumulative decline in job performance by as much as 30% to 40%, the same effect as being drunk,” he cautions. Over time this adds up to a higher risk for heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, weight gain and obesity, and a shorter lifespan.

It’s a catch-22 that only you can disrupt. One solution is to only take on what you can reasonably manage at work. “Make it clear that you want to be a better worker and that your job is important to you,” says Hart. He recommends learning effective ways to say “no,” either through assertiveness training classes or a therapist’s help. “Make sure your boss really knows how much you are doing,” he adds. “It’s amazing how ignorant they can be.”

Being overworked, underpaid and flat-lined for fun doesn’t stop at lights out, the primetime for worrying about what didn’t get done and what you still have to do. Rather than staying awake trying to solve everything, Epstein recommends jotting notes in a journal that you can review in the morning.

Alternatively, Collop suggests setting aside time about an hour before bed to write out your “worry list” to clear your head. If you wake up in the middle of the night, she recommends going to relax in a relatively dark room, with no TV or computer, for 10 to 15 minutes.

While persistent sleep issues won’t disappear overnight, you can take care of yourself first thing tomorrow: To boost your alertness in the morning, Collop recommends exposing yourself to a bright light. If sunlight isn’t available, she says light therapy products can be effective too.

So there it is… to get sleep you have to get your work done, but to get your work done you need rest. Easier said than done, especially when you’re juggling a multitude of things as most of us are. So where do we go from here? The goal is to run a successful business that affords financial benefits as well as the ability to maintain a balanced home life, yet the journey to get there can produce a number of sleepless night that affect what needs to be accomplished the following day. I highlighted two key suggestions given for clearing your mind before bed… what are some of the things you’ve done to get a good night’s rest?

Cutting myself some slack, I realize I’m seven months pregnant and after working full-time, going to school, chasing kids, and upholding my wifely duties (all of them…) I’m entitled to a few days or even weeks of rest. Still, I can’t help but think that every moment I’m sleep is one more moment I’ll have to spend in the corporate hell hole I just left. HELP!!! I thought this stay at home thing would be easy, but between the cooking and the cleaning, the business needs, and the household errands, I’m just as tired as I was before. Work From Home Moms, I need you…. how do you do it and make it look so easy?