Disclosure: I have partnered with Life of Dad and Restonic Mattress for this promotion.

Exercise helps me get ready for rest.

I consider myself many things. A good Father and Husband. A fan of the 80’s and so many toys. I also consider myself the King of Rest. There are many who are vying for this title but they do not face the challenges that I do each week in getting proper rest. Sure, these other dads have to take care of their homes and their families which can be exhausting. Sure, some of them have jobs that they do on top of their familial duties. I am not these other dads. I am unique in my week and my quest for rest. I’m also writing this at 3:30am. Find out why in the rest of this post.

My work week actually begins on Friday. After a full day with my son that usually begins around a 6am wake up call I head in to work for a 12 hour overnight shift. Fridays are usually spent in search of an hour or two of shuteye. The only way to achieve this is to also get Andrew to have an hour or two of shuteye. This, more often than not, does not happen. So I am awake for a 24 hour period each week. I want to have more sleep, it makes me a nicer person and way less irritable. Lack of sleep makes for a scream-y daddy.

Why Won’t He Let Me Sleep?

Being awake for a 24 hour period each week makes me appreciate sleep so much. I often make up those lost hours by taking catnaps anywhere and everywhere. However, my strange sleeping habits and schedule do not end there. I still have two more nights of work ahead of me. Also in that time I get to the gym and also church with the family. I’ve been in this position for five years now and have become an expert at sleeping during the day and at night all week long. This means that I can flip from weekend mode to weekday mode without any major problems like sleepless nights or sleepless days. None of the other so called Kings of Rest can claim this ability.

Taking a little rest between my strength and cardio sessions.

The tools that I have at my disposal in order to accomplish this strange sleeping schedule are exercise, air conditioner and ear plugs. Ear plugs are key when you are sleeping while the rest of the world is doing their weekend yard duties. In the Summer months the drone of an air conditioner also helps block out everyone having weekend fun while I sleep. I have found that exercise after a night of work helps get me in the mindset to sleep.

Earplugs are my friend especially when Andrew has the remote.

Some of the barriers to good sleep on my schedule are: drinking too much water through the night, un-skippable events during the weekend and an old mattress. During a night of work I drink a lot of water. I do that so I have reasons to get up an walk around once in a while whether I want to or not. The problem is, if I drink anything past 4am that means that I end up waking up a few hours after going to sleep.

I can enjoy the weekend too, getting outside to grill.

The weekends are when most people do things and so there are always events happening. I end up missing a lot of things. Sometimes, though, there are events that you just cannot miss. The problem is that I don’t always have time off to take so I have to be super efficient with my sleeping. That can mean sleeping for 2 hours, attending an event for 4 hours and then going right back to sleep. That is a rare occurrence but I can usually handle it.

The biggest thing preventing me from proper sleep is the mattress. We bought a mattress over 10 years ago. It has a permanent rut in it. Also the box spring creaks with any bit of movement. There are times that I lay in an uncomfortable position just so I don’t roll over and cause the bed to creak and squeak and wake up Allison. Those days, or nights when I end up not getting the best sleep because of the mattress really wear on me. Without sleep I don’t have the energy to exercise, clean the house, play with the kids, or make dinner.

For someone after my own heart.

Despite all of my challenges I mostly get decent rest and should be crowned The King of Rest. My sleep could be even better and to help with that I and should be chosen the winner of a new Restonic Mattress. I need all the help I can get to have proper rest each week.

The thing is, I shouldn’t be the only one who wins big. You should also win big. By entering below, anybody has the chance to win a queen sized HealthRest® Mattress from Restonic. Invest in your health with one of Restonic’s HealthRest® Brio™ Mattresses. Layered with latex and TempaGel® by Restonic and supported with a Trucomfort core™, a healthy, supportive night’s sleep is yours for the taking.

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Show some love for the fun people at Restonic. They have been great throughout this campaign and so funny and engaging on Twitter. I think that they have been enjoying my #KingOfRest photos and tweets. So find Restonic on Twitter and also look for Restonic on Facebook. And I bet you wouldn’t think of a mattress company as being on Pinterest and definitely wouldn’t think of one crushing it on Pinterest. Well, you have to check out Restonic on Pinterest. they have a ton of great boards. Many boards are filled with helpful tips on how to get better sleep. Not just with a new mattress but also with exercise, food and changing your sleeping habits. I had better check out more of those. However, the most important thing that Restonic has done online is it has created the SleepBlog http://www.restonic.com/blog which as a great place to go if you have sleep questions.

Clearly I think that I should be crowned the #KingOfRest but the official #KingOfRest winner out of all the #KingOfRest hopeful dads will be crowned on Thursday, May 26th – 8PM ET / 5PM PT — during the #KingofRest Twitter Party.