Lesson #8–Go to Sleep Together
Soon after we were married, a man that we both respected very much gave us an unconventional piece of wisdom. He said to always go to sleep together. We are grateful we received that counsel early on in our marriage. We continue to follow that counsel 15 years later.
We have always been night owls. We discovered King of Queens reruns while trying to stay awake when our twins were fresh from the hospital and on mandatory 3-hour feeding schedules. We have been known to binge-watch a new show during a summer break. We thrive on long road trips because of our night owl tendencies.
Now that we are getting a little *ahem* mature, we are cheering each other on to go to bed earlier because we are waking so much earlier. Some nights we do better than others. But we still go to bed together. If one of us is in a late meeting, we know the other spouse will be waiting up. It has strengthened our relationship to have that time together at the end of a long day/night to share any events from the day or to just have that solidarity.
No Excuses
Before you shrug this off and say, “Oh, sure, they can do that because________,” let me tell you that it isn’t always easy. My husband worked late night shifts for the first three years of our marriage and since then has been a coach. He comes home late quite often because of games or meetings. It took effort at first to maintain our tradition, but now it is something we do without giving it much thought.
Obviously I am not telling you how to live your life. I am, however, sharing things that we have learned that have strengthened our marriage through the years. If you are looking for ideas, this is one I would HIGHLY recommend.
Lesson 8: Go to sleep together. Think of all of the trouble you can avoid if you are not awake and alone at night!
If you have missed any of the lessons along the way, here are the lessons leading up to #8:
I hope these ideas bring joy to your life and to your marriage.
