Sleep is natural, normal and very vital to our wellbeing. Sleep is so simple; a baby can initiate it quickly. It is so essential to note that without sleep, we can die. It is a primary function of life, like food, movement, thought, and creation. So why then would it be so challenging to get?
If you find it hard to sleep regularly at night, you know how badly not getting enough sleep every night can affect your days. The struggle is to wake up in the morning. You may be late for work or school. You have trouble concentrating and focusing, and it is more challenging to be creative. Your mood suffers when you lack sleep. You are most likely to be irritable without a good night’s sleep behind you. The tendency to throw away something that you don’t think or shouldn’t say is much higher when you are tired. It is harder to exercise, and you may always feel hungry. Indeed, in general, your health and life would be better if you could get some sleep.
Well, there you are. And I can help you! Read on and together we will move you forward towards better sleep and a better life.
A few restless nights of sleep deprieved before a big occasion, in a new place, or during an illness is normal and expected in everyday our life.
By definition, a chronic sleep problem has been created over time and has been a concern for at least a few weeks. It is therefore unrealistic to think that this can be fixed in one or two nights. It took some time to fix this badly; it will take some time to heal. I know it isn’t very pleasant, but it’s true.
The good news is that you can start improving your sleep right away. The changes you make tonight and the commitment you made today will be the first steps towards a healthy sleep for the rest of your life!
Read and follow these 5 tips. Just reading them won’t help. You have to follow them too! Some seem simple – stupid. But you’ll probably find that doesn’t always mean easy. So when it comes to sleeping, it often turns out that the dumbest thing is the most powerful. So trust me. Your success will depend on your readiness to work on those suggestions and be patient as the magic happens over time.
Set a regular time to wake up every day
It also includes weekends. The actual time you choose as “your time” is not that important, but stick to the schedule if used to it. If you have to be awake until a particular time to work 4-5 days a week, that will be your time – workdays and weekends. This is a crucial step and very difficult for most people.
Sleep is undoubtedly a natural process, but we must allow nature’s wisdom to work with us. Regular rhythms are a feature of nature, like the body of a squirrel or a bear’s body, the human body dances to the natural world’s rhythm. The sun rises and sets, the temperature also rises and falls, the seasons change. We have to get into this dance, move in the right rhythms to become regular in our responses.
Set a “scheduled” bedtime.
And this should be the same schedule every night, to make sure you have enough time to sleep. I say “expected” because you might not get sleep at the same time every night, and as we will see later, you should only try to sleep when you are sleepy. This is necessary, although it will be necessary to determine when everything else will be put aside, and sleep will be a priority.
We live in a hectic, redistributed and hyper-stimulated society. Sleep lags behind everything else, and it should be given the respect it truly deserves. Write down the sleep time in your PDA. Set an alarm clock in the living room or kitchen that will declare your bedtime as safe as the bedroom for your morning. Don’t let 30,000 other distractions in life interfere with your sleep schedule.
Allow enough time to sleep.
How much sleep do you need? Well, My grandma was right again. Most people need almost eight hours. 7 to 8 is a good range that you can try on your own. Some will need 7 hours and some 9, but science has shown us that we are likely to die sooner if the average is not at least 6 hours a night. That does NOT mean that 6 hours is enough for a good life, just enough to move on.
Sleep is not a passive process. It’s not a “stalemate.” It is a significant opportunity for the body to heal, build, rebuild, balance and cleanse tissues, organs and systems without enough sleep. Some of our most important hormones, such as human growth hormone and testosterone, are produced most efficiently, sometimes just while we sleep. What would happen if you never brought a car to the store? If you have never emptied your office trash? What if you’ve never replenished your fridge supply?
The brain also has to work hard while we sleep. We now know that memory consolidation is best done during sleep. There are hundreds of stories of creative discoveries that originated from dreams or were at their fingertips right after waking up.
Allow enough time to sleep so that your body can glow and mind shine.
Create a bedtime ritual.
If you have children or have already had them, you are probably familiar with this idea. Every night at a particular time, children are helped or reminded to take a bath, change into nice jam, brush their teeth, read a beautiful story before bed, express their hopes and gratitude, kiss their loved ones, and then light up.
It would be an excellent copy routine. The advantages of performing such tasks are twofold:
First, the regularity of timing is improved, as discussed in tips 1 and 2. The regular sequence of activities that lead to “stopping” serves as a signal to your body that the chance to sleep is approaching. This will allow the systems to begin to reset and be ready for their sleep tasks, instead of suddenly changing direction in the middle course.
Second, the calm and relaxing nature of bedtime routine helps you to change gears mentally and emotionally. You break away from stressors and make daily commitments and relax. Relaxing reading, soothing music, bath, massage, intimate romantic moment; they can all create an effective “trench” that will indeed separate your busy day from your quiet night.
Make your bedroom into a Sleep Palace
When you walk into your room at the end of the day, ready to begin a successful sleep sojourn, you should receive one and only one message: Sleep …! (Okay, sleep and sex – but two and also messages!) If you walk into your room and see a treadmill, a computer, a television, an answering machine, a stack of bills, a stack of laundry, a stack from anything but a pillow, your brain receives mixed messages. With so much disturbance, the brain doesn’t know what you want or intend.
Much like training a new puppy, there has to be an obvious message about what will happen. Bed = sleep. Bed = sleep. Bed = sleep (and sex). That’s all!
So take out of your bedroom, anything that does not concern or does not promote good sleep. Now that all of this mess is gone, you can “invite” to sleep. Make your bedroom a place you love. Pick your favorite relaxing colours. Hang memorable pictures that will constantly remind you of relaxed times and places you have visited. Make it soft like a hug and calm like a sanctuary.