SEND HELP! It's 2am and you're wide awake, for the third week in a row. Thoughts are racing through your mind and you are unable to fall back asleep. Worries fill your mind of the work day ahead of you, the date you have scheduled later that day and you begin to feel the rising pressure you put on yourself every single day to perform.
This is just one in a thousand examples of how finding sleep can be extremely difficult for you. There are so many reasons why one can suffer from interrupted sleep. Let's look at the most common ways, learn how to create for yourself a healthy night routine and give you the tools you will need to combat restless nights.
Your Circadian Rhythm
There are an incredible amount of reasons why sleep is evading you and it all begins with you. Your body is an incredible organism with highly adaptive systems that help to monitor everything our bodies do in a 24-hour period. Our circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioural changes that respond primarily to light and dark and they affect our hormones, eating habits and digestion, body temperature and sleep (National Institute of General Medical Sciences, 2021).
Every tissue and organ in our body contains a biological clock that regulates the cycle of our circadian rhythms. These biological clocks are all coordinated by a master clock in the brain called suprachiasmatic nucleus (SNC) that keeps everything in sync. The SNC receives direct input from our eyes.
The SNC controls the production of melatonin, which is a hormone that naturally will make you sleepy. When the SNC receives information about incoming light, it will not make melatonin. However, when there is less incoming light, the SNC will relay that information to the bring to make more melatonin for you to become sleepy.
Sleep Apnea
This is a fairly severe sleeping disorder that occurs when your breathing repeatedly starts and stops during sleep. If you are a loud snorer or find you are waking up exhausted after a full night's sleep you may have sleep apnea. Other symptoms include feeling irritable, difficulty concentrating, extreme sleepiness during the day, headaches in the morning, waking with a dry mouth, or waking up gasping for air. It is recommended to speak with your physician for the proper treatment plan.
Insomnia
This is a common sleep disorder that causes disruptions to your sleep, making it hard to fall asleep or causing you to wake up and unable to find sleep again. Insomnia steals your time, energy, and affects your quality of life. Stress, depression, anxiety and traumatic experiences can also play a role in the duration and severity of insomnia. Other factors that can cause insomnia include medications, medical conditions, caffeine, alcohol, changes in work schedule, and aging.
Sleep Routines That Work
Unplug
Yes! I'm talking about your electronics here. All electronic devices give off a strong blue light, however some give you the option to switch Night Shift on. The detrimental things about this blue light is that it not only fatigues and strains your eyes, it ultimately tricks our brain into thinking it is still daylight, which means that our brain won't produce the melatonin we need to fall asleep.
Set a Bedtime and Stick to it
As part of your circadian rhythm cycle, you can use your bedtime routine to make it easier for your brain to wind down. Set specific winding down and wake up times and be consistent. Once your body is in a routine it will make it easier for the brain to know when to produce the melatonin to help you fall asleep easily. Did you know that most smart phones have the feature to remind you to wind down for the night?
Light Snacks Only
Having a heavy meal just before bed can cause your body to work overtime in digesting your food, you can even experience acid reflux. You might also find that you wake up in the middle of the night for those washroom runs that disrupt your sleep. Going to bed hungry is also not a good option for a deep sleep.
Choose a light snack to satisfy your stomach and remember to use the washroom before you head to bed. Here is a quick video with some examples on 6 Foods That Help You Sleep.
Warm Bath Please
As part of your circadian rhythm, your body goes through a variety of hormonal changes in the day. As mentioned above, it also will begin to produce melatonin in the evening for you to sleep while at the same time reducing your internal body temperature.
Taking a hot both creates a similar experience in your body where your body will heat up and then cool down as you exit the bath, which will lead you to naturally feel tired, peaceful and ready to head to bed.
Music Magic
Did you know that peaceful music, white noise, or nature sounds, like rain or waves can help improve your quality of sleep? It's important to note that you should keep the volume low, set a timer so that it doesn't play all night and that the music is not catchy or else you'll find yourself singing and dancing to the tunes.
Journal it Out
This might seem daunting if you're not a 'journal person' in that case it's recommended to write a simple to-do list of what you need to get done in the coming days. If you enjoy journaling take some time each night to reflect on your day, your thoughts and feelings. You can also send yourself a voice note sharing how your day went, anything that bothered your and any other thoughts that come to you. Sometimes the thing we need is to just say it out, or write it out to get it from our thoughts into our external world.
Stretch, Relax and Breathe Before Bed
Completing a few simple stretches before bed has been shown to improve one's quality of sleep and can help with cramping (National Library of Medicine, 2013). Tuning into your breathe and completing progressive muscle relaxation techniques can also help you to release any built up tension your body carried throughout the day. Here's an example of a PMR routine, although there are many different versions of this.
Prepare Your Sleep Environment
Ensure that your environment allows for the least amount of light to filter in. Black out curtains can be very helpful especially for individuals who work night shifts and have a hard time sleeping during the day. Reducing the thermostat to between 15 to 21 Celsius, and relaxing with a calming scent with an aromatherapy filter can also create a relaxing environment perfect for sleep. Organize your environment so that you can sleep clutter free.
The Bed is Sacred
Set clear guidelines around the purpose of the bed. Your bed is for sleep and sex. Do your best to avoid working from the comfort of your bed, or watching TV in bed, or even eating in bed. We know it can be hard to get out of bed, but it's important to set function of the bed mostly for sleep and intimacy.
Avoid Caffeine and Alcohol
Avoid drinking any caffeinated drinks in the late afternoon or evening to avoid sleepless nights. Drinking alcohol at night might appear that it helps you to sleep, but behind the scenes it is actually one's rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Disruptions in REM can cause you to feel exhausted during the daytime, lack concentration and reduce those needed hours of sleep from you. Chamomile tea is a great tea to help relax your body and prepare for sleep.
Light Exercise
Research has shown that individuals who do light to moderate exercises one hour before bed tend to fall asleep faster and have a deeper sleep. However, not all exercise is an ingredient to good sleep. High intensity exercise completed less than one hour before bed can be a determinant for a restful night's sleep.
Although this is not an exhaustive list of ways to find sleep, we hope that it is a good start for you! A lot of mental health illness can still get in the way of your sleep, and so it is recommended to work with a therapist or mental health professional to identify the best ways to enjoy sleep.
Space, Grace & Beautiful Bridges
Xo Unapologetically You
Resources:
https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/circadian-rhythms.aspx
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sleep-apnea/symptoms-causes/syc-20377631
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355167
Bình luận