The Importance of a good nights sleep zzzzz

It has been said that the ideal amount of sleep to have each night is 8 hours, but in a busy world with work or Uni or life in general do we all really get 8 hours of sleep a night?
Last week due to the craziness of juggling a life with Uni, gym, work etc I was having 6 hours of sleep a night. It was a struggle to wake up but none the less once I was up and about it was ok, and every day when I awoke I would say “ok tonight will be an early one.” Do you think that happened? Uh..NO chance!
Happily plodding along day to day I was slowly becoming restless and what I would call “emotion” I put it down to new surroundings, but it wasn’t until I noticed I was getting hungrier (not unusual), irritable and insecure for some reason, but then I thought in my crazy hysteria of restlessness I’ve had no sleep!
So you can guess, a good 8 hours sleep later and I felt like myself again,
The point of this article is that the next time you feel restless, uneasy or generally irritable ask yourself if you’ve had enough sleep, you really will feel much better once you have it!

Nawal El Saadawi is an inspiration

Nawal El Saadawi نوال السعداوى‎),
A revolutionist before the revolution,
Last night Nawal El Saadawi gave a talk about her life and her new project of creativity and dissidence.

She was so full of life, un pretentious (not that all academics are) warm and open.
For many of you reading this who aren’t familiar with her works, she has lived a very accomplished and active life, she is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. She has written many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of female and male genital mutilation in her society. Some of her popular books give an in depth insight into the lives of women in the Arab world, although she says her books are fictional many of which are based on her own and other women’s experiences. Her books include The Hidden Face of Eve , Woman at Point Zero and Zeina to name but a few.
As a post graduate myself, it was amazing to think I am sitting in front of a woman who has achieved so much in her life, through trouble, fight and also by her glowing aura a fulfilled and happy life too. She made me think, “wow what do I want to have achieved by the time I’m 80?” She has lived nearly 3 of my lives, I’m 24 by the way, and to sit there at 80 and be so accomplished and yet still be in high spirits and I can imagine as passionate and driven as she probably was as a child when the Egyptian revolution started.
A point I want to leave this article on is this, during the evening an audience member asked her- “What in your opinion can we do to help the revolution? Who can we turn to for hope?”
Nawal replied- “ Yourself! You have the power to create things and change the world, don’t get stuck and live for other people.”
So I will leave this note with Live your life for you, do things that make you happy, don’t follow the crowd if it doesn’t feel right, doing what makes you happy will make you feel more fulfilled.
If you would like to know more about Nawal El Saadawi here is an article about her http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-saadawi.htm
Thank you x