Joanna Donnelly says Dancing With The Stars has helped her insomnia, admitting the debilitating health condition has affected her since she was a teenager.
The RTÉ weather presenter also suffers from asthma but has learned how to control symptoms so that it doesn’t have an impact on her dance training.
Joanna says the long and tiring hours she is putting into rehearsals is actually working in her favour.
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She told RSVP Live: “I suffer from insomnia. It’s been part of my life and something I have been living with since I was a teenager. It is very frustrating and it comes in waves.
“I think the physical exhaustion that comes with dancing all day, every day is actually helping me with the insomnia because I am totally wiped out at the end of each day.”
Joanna manages her asthma with medication and doesn’t let it stop her from exercising.
She added: “I am coughing a little bit at the moment, but I think that is more to do with the weather than my asthma. It hasn’t been triggered yet, really. I take my inhalers and my medication.
“I am pretty fit, thankfully. Before [Dancing With The Stars] I used to work out every day. I have a gym set-up in my house and I do a lot of yoga. But the dancing takes up so much time, that’s the only exercise I have time for at the moment.”
Joanna has made it through to Movie Week on the hit RTÉ show. Tonight, she and partner Maciej Zieba will dance a Quickstep to Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel from the 1960s classic, The Graduate.
Four weeks into the competition, the meteorologist has fully realised how much commitment the show requires.
She said: “I made a mistake ahead of the first show. We had significant weather warnings out that week. You don’t know the weather in advance of making your schedules, and I made the mistake of thinking I could cover rehearsals and weather for the first week.
“I wore myself out. I should have taken more time off [work]. I was really not prepared for the level of commitment that both the weather and dancing needed.
“It was also Christmas time, so there were family and friends to see too. That first week was way too much, but we live and we learn.”
Joanna is now getting better at managing her time and asking for help as she adjusts to her new schedule.
“There’s always balance and there’s always compromise when you commit yourself to something so huge like Dancing With The Stars,” she explained.
“You have to be aware that something is going to give, and have back-ups or allowances in place to fill in those gaps for you.
“I consulted my family before agreeing to sign up and they have been super at picking up the slack needed. I’ve hired some help to help around the house that I never had before, because you just can’t do everything, and you want to make a good commitment.”
The RTÉ star says balance has been easier to achieve as the weeks go on and she hopes to keep dancing for the foreseeable future.
Joanna added: “I think I’m getting better at making those good decisions. Maybe I’m getting a bit stronger in the legs and smarter in the brain, too.
“Now when Maciej tells me to do a ronde, or go into frame, I know what that means. It’s getting more intuitive. I just want to stay in the competition long enough to learn more.”
Dancing With The Stars airs Sunday nights at 6.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player
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