Sleep Disruption: Taking an Inventory and Changing your Lifestyle

Coffee keeping you awake at night?  Or maybe it's something else.  If you are having trouble with sleep, then you are probably having trouble with a lot of other mental and emotional forms of functioning also, as lack of sleep can enhance the symptoms of depression, anxiety and cognitive functioning.

When you've been having trouble with sleep, you can develop symptoms like irritability, poor concentration, poor response time, and poor decision-making skills.  The lack of rejuvenating rest can lead to a disruption in brain activity, which in turn leads to poor problem-solving skills and poor reaction time.

There are many reasons why people have difficulty sleeping, and from person to person it will vary.  Causes range from medical disorders like sleep apnea, to poor regulation of caffeine intake and lack of exercise.  Taking a very careful inventory and being honest with yourself about the answers is important.  

Don't brush aside two cups of coffee as insignificant, or believe medical conditions like restless leg syndrome are things of irrelevance.  They do matter and they do contribute to why an individual may have insomnia or be waking in the night.  Signing up for a local sleep study can help you discover things you may not know about your own sleep patterns and help you gain advise to address your sleep difficulties.

An honest review of your habits is also important in order to address whether you have developed a lifestyle that has caused you to stay up too late, sleep in too long, or adhere to a diet that is chemically altering your alertness at bedtime.

In addition, having a good routine for preparing for bedtime is also key in developing good habits for a good night's sleep.  You can find my previous blog about ideas for getting ready for bed and increasing your chances of a good night's sleep here.

Thanks to Daniel Max for the great photo, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Relieving Stress through Stretching

Stretching out is something we often see athletes do prior to playing their sport of choice, as it is a known tool in preventing pulled muscles and other injuries.  It also improves performance and allows a wider range of motion for a wide variety of activities.

Yet, stretching is also a helpful tool in Stress Reduction because it helps us to become familiar with the difference between tension and relaxation.  The reason this is so important in Stress Management is because we can sometimes reach the point of carrying chronic stress in the body, and when that happens, we lose touch with what it feels like to release tension and regain relaxation.  The result is that when we attempt to relax, we might feel too guarded to “just let go”, and releasing tension in the muscles becomes complex or nearly impossible.  This guarded stance can lead to insomnia and muscle pain.

In a well-known relaxation technique called Progressive Muscle Relaxation, individuals are trained to tighten, tense and flex various areas of the body.  They then learn to hold that tension for just a moment before letting it go in a release that relaxes the muscle and tendons completely.  For instance, tightening the fists as tight as you can, holding it, and then letting it go by relaxing the fists and letting them become limp and loose.  The strategy is not just for the purpose of stress reduction, but to train individuals to notice the difference between tension, and relaxation.

Very simple stretching exercises can be used for the same reason.  Reaching down to touch the toes, and then slowly coming back up.  Reaching up to the sky, and then lowering the arms and hands and shaking them out as if they were wet rags.  Wrinkling up the face and then releasing it into a smooth smile.  All of these methods use the same concept that Progressive Muscle Relaxation does, in that intentional tightening is followed by gentle releasing, and an awareness of the difference between the two takes place so as to train oneself how to first notice tension, and then how to release it at any given time.

Thanks to Tambako the Jaguar for the great photo Stretching lioness

Preparing for a Good Night’s Sleep

Being ready to sleep at bedtime is something our modern, fast-paced world doesn’t really prepare us for.   Instead, many cultures (particularly those in the West) support lifestyles that keep individuals active and awake well into the late evening and early morning hours.  Therefore, being ready to sleep is something we all may have to intentionally work at in order to get the rest we need each night.  Fortunately, there are several ways to prepare for bedtime, and many are simpler than you may realize.

First of all, gradually dimming your evening lighting can alter the level of melatonin in your system, which has an effect on your preparedness for sleep.  If you think about it, this makes perfect sense as the natural light on earth (the Sun) fades gradually (not at the flip of a switch) at the end of the day as it disappears behind the horizon.  However, in our modern world we turn on lights and keep ourselves up and active well beyond the disappearance of the natural lighting provided by the sun.  So gradually dimming the lighting in your home to slowly simulate the gradual setting of the sun helps to prepare you for sleep.

Also, the Japanese have known for ages that soaking in a nice warm tub of water prior to bedtime, helps to relax the body and prepare it for sleep.  See my earlier blog entry (here) about the benefits of soaking in a warm bath and how it can help you relax and reduce stress and anxiety.  It's a great way to wind down at the end of the day or even earlier in the evening as part of your preparatory ritual to get the body and mind ready to rest.

Outside of lighting and soaking in a warm bath, it also helps to refrain from eating or drinking fluids close to bedtime.  If your body is focused on digesting foods after you go to bed, it’s less relaxed and able to sleep.  Foods can also cause an upset stomach, which leads to discomfort and an inability to fall asleep or stay asleep.  And there are two things that can go wrong whenever you drink fluids prior to "lights out".  You can end up waking in the night needing to go to the bathroom as the water is processed through the kidneys.  And, if the fluids taken in have stimulating chemicals like caffeine or sugar in them, they could increase your activity level instead of lower it, which is counter-intuitive to finding ways to slow down before its time to sleep.

The main message is to think about the hours leading up to bedtime and how they have an effect on your ability to fall asleep, stay asleep, and sleep well.  All of which have a direct impact on your level of stress and anxiety throughout the day.

Thanks to planetchopstick for the great photo Angel Sleeps