I’ve largely struggled with sleep for the past 9 years. My sleep problems began with a traumatic event and have never quite gone away. This year, I’ve been working diligently to try to improve my sleep and I’ve made some headway that I wanted to share. The information on sleep can be overwhelming. Learning about sleep sometimes made my sleep even worse because I became stressed out about if I was doing it right. But here are the things that have worked after trial and error.
- Wake up and sleep at consistent hours. These are essential to training your body to know when it’s time to be active and when to wind down. Try to time your wake up time closer to sunrise and your bedtime not too long after sunset. Sunlight plays an important role in our melatonin production. So mimicking the timing of nature only helps improve our sleep. Now I wake up around 4:45AM and I find myself getting tired by 7, so I sleep at around 8:30 or 9.
- Exercise. Exercise tires our minds and bodies. It releases stress and pent up emotions and energy through movement. I find exercise vital to getting a good night’s sleep. I have an exercise routine that I do everyday.
- Make a morning routine. To make getting up easier, try to do the same thing when you wake up everyday so that it becomes natural. The momentum of your routine will also carry you throughout the day to keep you mentally relaxed and focused. When we wake up we are still in a state of mind that is slightly connected with our subconscious, so it’s a great time to do creative work, journal, or meditate. You can also choose to exercise. I find that once you set the habit, it becomes easier and easier to do everyday. With any habit, remember to start small. Think about how you want to start the day. What do you want to accomplish everyday? Prioritize that for the first few hours of your day.
- Make a bedtime routine. After the ups and downs of everyday life a bedtime routine helps us wind down and reminds our bodes that it’s time to rest again. Try to avoid screens or anything stimulating in the hour or two before you sleep. You can also install red light in your room as this helps melatonin production. If your lighting isn’t ideal, another useful tool is blue light blocking glasses to protect melatonin production. Having certain lighting or ambiance for bedtime is a trigger that helps cue our bodies that it’s time to rest. Reading a calming book or doing a meditation can also help get us ready for bed.
- Meditation. When I finally get ready to turn in, I like to do a quick prayer or I journal to leave behind any frustrations or worries that I’ve had during the day. Then I do a five to ten minute meditation that focuses on my breath. My mind is often still running at the speed of light and distracted from the events of the day. So to cultivate a calm mind, I focus on the sensations of my breath. It centers me and helps release anxiety and tension. After focusing on my breath, I do a progressive relaxation. Start with your head or your toes and relax every part of your body till you end up at the opposite end. Then be aware of any remaning tension in your body and repeat the mantra “let go” to any tension or thought that his holding you back from relaxing completely and entering sleep. If you wake during the night and feel tension in your body and mind, repeat the process of focusing on your breath, then progressively relaxing your mind and body while repeating the “let go” mantra.
At times, I may have released tension from most of my body, though my mind is still holding on tight to a certain thought or idea and won’t let go. I focus my energies on letting go of that thought. Sometimes it’s difficult because I become attached to that thought, but the only way to relax and enter sleep is to give it up. In my next post I’ll talk about emotion management and how I process difficult emotions, which also helps with sleep.