Sleep Hygiene, An Important Part Of Wellness

The article below was published in Dock Line magazine in February of 2009 and I have added in a few things that I couldn't fit in to the article.

Ok, raise your hand if you’re glad to know that laying a foundation for wellness includes anything to do with sleep! You’ll be glad to know it is an integral part of being well. To be more specific, REST is an integral part of being well, and lack of it leads to breakdowns in the body. It’s also important to become familiar with a new term called “sleep hygiene”. We’ll touch on these things in the rest of this article, and hopefully I can fit it all into one issue, if not, rest assured (no pun intended), we’ll cover the rest (another unintended pun) next time.

First, why do we get sleepy? Did you ever wonder that? What is it that makes us feel ready to go to bed? Without going into the physiology of it all, let’s just say that the Guy who did the wiring on us knew what He was doing. Getting sleepy is the body’s way of telling us “ok, you’ve had a long day, it’s time to power down so we can repair any damage that has gone on”. Repair to the damages that are inflicted by daily living occurs when we rest. That is why when we don’t get enough rest, we can’t function, and can fall ill. That is also why we want to sleep more when we are ill. Our body’s innate intelligence is telling us to slow it down. So now you know there is a real reason for rest.

Remember I differentiated between sleep and rest. One can sleep without getting enough rest. The real resting occurs when we get into Rapid Eye Movement sleep (REM). That is the deep, repair time sleep. We’ve all had nights where we were in the bed for 8 hours, maybe even sleeping most of that time, yet we still feel tired and un-rested. So, what things keep us from deep rest, and what can we do to get better at it? Read on!

There are several things that can keep us from resting well. Some things are well within our control, some we have less control over. For now, we’ll just focus on developing a good sleep hygiene plan. Sleep hygiene has to do with the habits you can learn to improve your resting. They are multi-faceted, and when working together will help you improve the chances of getting proper rest.

1. Pre-sleep routine: You must develop a routine to follow for proper rest. An example would be as follows: Shower at 9:30, read from 10:00 to 10:30, followed by bedtime. The more of a routine you develop and follow, the more you body will be ready for rest.
2. Avoid alcohol and caffeine: I have some people tell me that they have no trouble sleeping after caffeine at night. I can understand that, but what I tell them is, while you may be able to fall asleep, studies show that you will not enter the deeper levels of sleep required for rest and repair. The same is true of alcohol. If you’ve ever had too much to drink, you know you can fall asleep easier, and sleep for a very long time. However, I am sure you felt very tired and worn out afterward, the effect of the alcohol having kept you from deep rest.
3. Try a cup of chamomile tea before bedtime to relax you, especially if you've had a stressful day.
   
4. As you get closer to your bedtime, start turning down the lights in the house. The darkness makes your body start preparing for sleep.
5. Don’t watch stimulating TV shows right before bedtime (ie 24). It keeps your mind too active. No exercise for at least 2 hours before bedtime. Also don't use the TV in the bedroom to fall asleep.
6. Use the bedroom only for rest and sex. Using it for work will create a neuroassociation in your mind of work/bedroom.
7. Keep your bedroom temperature cooler vs. warmer
   
8. If you can’t fall asleep, or you wake and can’t fall back asleep, don’t stay in the bed tossing and turning. Again, a negative neuroassociation will be linked to the bedroom and NOT being able to sleep. Instead, get up, read something non-stimulating (a maintenance guide) and keep the lights down low. Turning the lights up bright tells your body it’s time to wake.
9. If you have trouble falling asleep, or falling back asleep, use the breathing technique we taught last month for reducing stress. In through your nose, out through your mouth, with exhalations much longer than inhalations. The way to slow down your exhalations is to breath out thru your mouth with your lips pursed as if you are going to whistle. Doing a session like this shortly before bedtime for 15 minutes will help prepare you for rest. Focus on relaxing every muscle in your body bit by bit until you finally doze off.
10. Finally, get up and go to bed at the same time every day, or as close to it as possible. Developing that routine helps our bodies fall into a pattern. This is especially important as we age and sleep disorders become more common.
11. Keep your room as dark as possible.

Be Well!!!

Stress

Ok, who ISN'T stressed these days? We just came out of the holiday season, the economy is on everyone's mind, people in my practice are worried about jobs etc. This goes to show that life IS stressful a good portion of the time. So what do we do about that? Well it goes back to an age old saying: What happens to us is not as important as how we react to what happens to us. Why is that important? It's important because 90% of visits to doctor's offices are stress related. It's important because almost every common disease process has a stress factor in it. So how do we change our reaction to stressful events? Simply by changing our focus. Read on to see what I mean by that.

Take this test for me: Look around the room you're in now. Look around and notice everything in the room that is brown........go ahead and spend the next 15 seconds doing that........NOW!



scroll down to continue




Now............close your eyes. yes, I mean it.........close your eyes..........ok you can't close your eyes and read this at the same time, I know. So, ok read this: Close your eyes as soon as you finish reading this sentence: think of everything in the room that is green........for 15 seconds with your eyes closed.

Now, did you do it? If you did it right, you probably were surprised at all the green in the room. The point is, we see in our lives, what we choose to focus on. Sounds simplistic? I know. But it's real. If we spend our time focusing on the brown in life, we'll only notice the brown. If we spend time focusing on the green and growing stuff, we'll notice that more. Read the previous blog about being grateful to learn how to change your focus and feel better and less anxious or stressed.

Hey, what have you got to lose? Nothing!! What have you got to gain? EVERYTHING! Get serious, try this for 30 days faithfully and see if you don't feel much better and less stressed (or anxious, or depressed etc)

Be Well!