Do you get Enough Sleep?
Wouldn’t it be lovely to be able to sleep so soundly?! Sadly, it’s estimated that two-thirds of adults in the developed world fail to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep each night. The current situation certainly doesn’t help. Being in an anxious or stressed state will affect the quality and quantity of sleep we get.
Why does it Matter?
Whatever the reason, a lack of sleep, or the wrong balance between the physically restoring and the mentally resetting types of sleep, can leave us feeling tired, lethargic and low, making it difficult to deal with the day ahead. If this sleep disruption persists and becomes a chronic issue, it can lead to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety disorders as well as increasing our risk of contracting many physical disorders and diseases.
It’s easy to see just how important it is to get a good nights sleep! Our body’s natural way of diffusing the stress we face during the day happens as we sleep. If we don’t get enough, we don’t process that stress very successfully and it builds up, affecting the quality of our sleep even more and a very unhelpful, negative cycle can be formed.
Here are a few tips to help you improve your sleep:
Increase Daylight Exposure: exposure to daylight helps to keep circadian rhythm healthy and regular. There is some evidence that exposure to early morning light can help to reset the body clock and improve sleep patterns.
Decrease night time exposure to blue light: blue light is recognised as daylight by our bodies and so also affects our circadian rhythm. If we watch screens – TV/computers/tablets/phones – before going to bed, our body will think it’s daytime and the urge to sleep will be reduced. It is recommended that we avoid blue light for at least 2 hours prior to going to bed.
Relaxation Techniques: listening to guided meditation helps you to focus on something else and to relax which helps you to get to sleep and to stay asleep.
Meditation: meditating can help you to clear your mind and relax prior to going to bed.
Establish a routine: try to get into a sleeping routine and stick to it. Evidence suggests that sticking to the same times, 7 days a week, really helps us to sleep better. Getting up at the same time every day helps us to train our bodies and establishing a regular time for going to bed will also help. However, it may be counter-productive to go to bed before you feel tired.
Can’t switch off: try thinking about something that you have successfully completed rather than something you have still to do, it’s easier for your brain to switch off that way.
Tossing and Turning: try thinking about something really nice, real or imagined. Take yourself to a lovely place in your imagination, remember how relaxed and happy you felt then and allow yourself to feel that way now. If that doesn’t work, get up and do something really boring until you feel sleepy.
Bedroom Temperature: keep the temperature of your bedroom comfortably low, studies have shown that sleep can be severely disrupted by high temperatures.
Body Temperature: having a hot bath or shower before bed can also help, evidence shows that sleep is easier to induce as the body cools down.
Eating late: eating late in the evening has been shown to disrupt sleep.
Avoid Caffeine: and other stimulants late in the day.
Avoid Alcohol: a couple of drinks can seem like a good way to help you to relax and get to sleep but alcohol disrupts the balance of sleep.
More Information
If you would like to know more, or think you might need help to get your sleep back under control, please call or email Karen for a no-obligation chat. Hypnotherapy can help with sleep disorders as well as many other issues. Although face-to-face sessions can’t happen at the moment, I am working through video conferencing during Lockdown, and offering reduced rates for the duration.