Recently I took the past Thursday and Friday off from work. This comes after passing the Enrolled Agent exam (3 exams) last month and I really haven't taken much vacation from work this year. Friday I felt the best I had in quite a while. The nice thing about not going to work is you don't have the stress of worrying about what you need to do/have to do when you are off. However, I do still have a tendency to check my e-mails even when I am off (you know to make sure things don't blow up). Related to this I have been listening to an audio book called "A World Without E-Mail" by Cal Newport which essentially attempts to get you to check your e-mail less frequently given it tends to cause burn out (which I would agree with). Especially these days everyone is always "on"-nights, weekends, holidays and stresses everyone out. I tried for a day or so to check e-mail only once or twice a day and it felt nice. Unfortunately, this only lasted a few days since I guess we are all creatures of habit. I have notice stress does contribute to flare ups for my Crohn's. The main triggers for me are sleep, stress, and what I eat. Out of all those factors I would say sleep is the most important. Poor sleep leads to the more stress and making poor food choices. Taking Thursday and Friday off allowed me to get plenty of rest, eat light but yummy food, work out, and really just enjoy the day.
In addition to this Friday evening I got a massage (at Massage Heights) and was amazed at how I earlier in the day had some light cramping but after the massage went away completely! A couple of months ago I saw a chiropractor off and on which does seem to help but I haven't made an appointment in a while. Saturday and Sunday (today) were somewhat of a lull. I woke up late on both days (super late today) and notice that if I look at my phone before bed too much is when I have issues. If I read before bed I am usually almost always better off. To try to help me sleep I have white noise videos from YouTube of the ocean, winter storm, or something else to relax me. One thing I have looked at is the Oura Ring which currently is about $300 and they just came out with their 3rd edition (however it looks like they will charge a monthly fee after 6 free months). I am curious at possibly looking at this for myself. Given sleep is pretty important and affects your productivity, mood, and ultimately life it may be worth the small investment.
The key component is the good sleep because that essentially sets everything else. So many times I have either had major cramping or gained weight because I didn't sleep well and then would just be grabbing whatever. These small steps have made a difference in staying in remission with Crohn's.
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