Lacking Sleep? Try these ideas?

Missing out on a good night's sleep can really throw us off the next day.  We may feel not only tired, but experience irritability, difficulty with focusing, increased stress  and decreased resilience.  Little things can be more annoying and big things can feel like heavier burdens. 

Now, multiply that by a lot when that sleep loss becomes chronic, either due to insomnia, or because we've told ourselves a story that we are too squeezed for a good night's sleep and the one thing we can cut out to "gain more time" is sleep.

Either way, lack of sleep can take its toll both in the short run and over time. The latter often plays out with an increase in weight, sickness and sometimes even debilitating disease. 

I think we can agree that getting enough sleep is imperative.  So what if you are someone that wants to get better sleep and a solid 7 to 8 hours of bagging zzzzz's, but just finds yourself lying awake at night?  

And what about the person (maybe you) that feels so overloaded and overwhelmed with daily tasks that sleep sacrifice seems like the only thing you can control?

Let's look at both of these in the context of how to improve both- since they affect the mind, body and brain in the same ways. 

Some ideas for both categories: 

1. Sleep experts continue to preach, set your alarm each day for the same wake up time. That means weekends, holidays etc.This is crucial because it is one thing that we can control, and it's imperative as it sets the bodies' circadian rhythm which is a crucial part of this whole picture.

2. Find ways to offload some stress during the day.  This could mean a daily walk, journaling, praying, meditating, doing yoga, or some other methods of destressing daily. This is critical to not take all that stress to bed with us each night.

3. Prepare your sleep routine.  Having a sleep routine, some refer to as "sleep hygiene" won't necessarily prevent insomnia, but certainly can help the body and brain to have cues that signal to the brain, it's time to wind down. That may include a warm shower, cup of chamomile tea, reading or anything else that helps you to wind down in the same order each night.

4. Make your environment conducive to winding down and ultimately, sleep. Consider dimming the lights in your home when the sun sets and it becomes dark out. Set your bedroom thermostat to around 67 degrees, or cooler if you can tolerate it. Ensure you have shades pulled down or invest in black out shades.

5. Don't watch news or suspense TV or videos right before bed or within an hour or two of bedtime.  On that note, if you are coupled, no "hot topic" conversations either within an hour or two of bedtime.  Use that time for quieting down, having pleasant positive conversations, or doing something fun and enjoyable that is not too stimulating. 

6. Don't go to bed until you feel sleepy.  Your bed should be used for sleep and sex only, so we don't want to do a myriad of activities in our bed. Rather we want our brain to make the association that bed is for sleep or sex.

7. Manage your mindset. If you are caught in a loop of insomnia, rather than dreading going to bed, remind yourself that you have new tools and over time and practice in using them, you can begin to look forward to getting a good night's sleep.

If you are someone who is lacking sleep because of too many demands in the daytime, it will be important to schedule some reassessment time.  Are you saying yes to too many things or too many people?  

Perhaps you've offered to babysit your grandchild daily, but what you really need is to offer up three times a week to free up some of your own time and energy.  Learning to set boundaries and give a good no, (or not now) can go a long way.  For many that is difficult to do and you may need a professional to begin to walk you through your barriers to setting boundaries.

Lastly, making caring for you as much of a priority as caring for others will go a long way to feel like your life is not just feeling like a runaway train with no conductor...  You can make a different choice starting today to reclaim some of your own time, and therefore your own health including getting a good night's sleep!