I need sleep.

Lately, I have been, well, tired, and yawning way more than any normal person should. I mean, it's so bad, my jaw is tired from yawning so much.

It's a vicious, vicious (sleepy) cycle.

But when I am working a lot and my life is as jam-packed as it is right now, I feel like sleep suddenly takes a back seat.

I have been sleeping, on average, for about six hours every night, maybe five. And the effects are definitely taking its toll. Like, this is a coffee-is-not-going-to-work-anymore kind of toll.

I am tired, exhausted even.

And I know many of you are suffering from the same problem. All I currently have on my plate is a crazy work schedule, a move to a new city that has left me in a bit of a tailspin—albeit an exciting one—and annoying kittens who like to scratch at my hand at 3am because they want to play. Add kids or a mortgage to that equation, and you might find me out in the middle of the road twitching and spinning in endless circles.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, back in the days before good ‘ol Tommy Edison decided to shed a bit of light into our lives and invent the light bulb, people slept an average of ten hours a night. (Lazy asses!) But today, Americans average 6.9 hours of sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours per night on weekend.

So, what’s a tired guy or gal to do?

Drink a nice big glass of red wine and cash in at 8:30 every night. Yep, that’s what the experts say.

Kidding, kidding… but wouldn’t that be a great excuse? “Sorry, kids, they say I gotta do this…”

Anyhoo, according to an article by Dr. Jan Yager, during her studies for her book Creative Time Management for the New Millennium she found the number one reason why people were not getting enough sleep was trying to do too much at once.

What’s more, Yager says a sign of poor time management is “workaholism.” This work-around-the-clock attitude is unhealthy, she says, because it creates an imbalance where people are allowing work to control their lives instead of being in control of their personal and work time. This attitude, Yager says, takes a toll on people’s work and social life.

She also emphasizes that getting enough sleep is important for physical and mental health, in addition to creativity—a factor that is surely important to me.

Yager suggests a “shopping list” for work time, including:

• prioritizing your goals
• planning your day
• and staying focused on what key tasks you need to do

So, what is on the top of my prioritized list of goals today, folks? Making a prioritized list of goals.

After that, I'm joining my kittens for some shut-eye.

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Caroline Shannon has been a journalist for six years, working for several publications, including Ideal Bite, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, First30Days, Maniac magazine and The Glass Hammer. She is a certified Pilates instructor and takes a long, hard run just as seriously as she does several Hint ‘O Mint Newman-O’s. She can be reached at www.carolineshannon.com.