The Foundation Of Sleep
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Sleep is our most essential self care practice because getting enough quality sleep at the right time in the night is necessary to good physical health, mental health, quality of life, and safety.
Unfortunately we do not take our sleep seriously. We allow electronics, excess caffeine, anxiety, workaholism, and even fun times to get in the way of a good night's sleep. We go for fake relaxation in front of screens instead of natural, deep, restorative sleep.
Being sleep deprived is like living our life on credit. We sure can borrow energy from caffeine, adrenaline, and even medications, but sooner or later we'll have to pay this borrowed energy back in the form of emotional instability, illnesses, and sometimes even tragic mistakes.
Sleep is important for:
Healing, repairing, and detoxifying our organs and blood vessels.
Keeping our immune system strong enough to fight off viruses, bacteria, and cells that have become dysfunctional.
Maintaining a healthy balance of the hormones that make us feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin).
Regulating our insulin, the hormone that controls our blood glucose level.
Supporting a healthy brain function to form new pathways and remember new information.
Integrating the previous day’s experiences and making important memories.
Being focused, making good decisions, and being creative.
Not sleeping enough leads to all kinds of problems:
A loss of just 1–2 hours of sleep per night affects our ability to function well.
Increased risk of cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke.
Feeling hungrier than when we're well-rested, which increase our risk of becoming overweight.
Having trouble fighting common infections.
Loss of productivity and increased risk of making mistakes - some that could be tragic.
Having trouble making decisions, solving problems, controlling our emotions and behavior, and coping with change.
Increased risk of suffering from depression.
Furthermore, sleeping at the right time in the night is crucial. Sleeping 8 hours from 2:00 AM-10:00 AM is not equal to sleeping 8 hours from 10:00 PM-6:00 AM. According to the wisdom of Chinese Medicine, very important organs such as our gall bladder, liver and lungs are detoxified between 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM in cycles of two hours. We must be asleep during that period of time if we want to prevent toxic build up, allergies and illnesses. And of course, we must sleep extra hours before and or after that stretch of night - when we sleep those extra 2-3 hours will depend on our own internal clock.
Here are a few tips to improve our sleep naturally:
Designing our days around a good night’s sleep.
Getting up and going to bed at the same time every day.
Avoiding caffeine for at least 8 hours before bedtime.
Being physically active during the day but avoiding vigorous workouts for at least 4 hours before bedtime.
Only using our bed for sleep and sex.
Turning off TV and electronics and dimming lights one to two hours before the time we want to fall asleep.
Processing our feelings before going to bed, by journaling, talking to a trusted person, reflecting and validating everything that has been felt throughout the day.
Engaging in a soothing bedtime ritual with writing, listening to relaxing music, reading something non-stimulating (from a real book, not a screen), doing some restorative yoga, drinking a cup of herbal tea, etc.
Sleeping only when feeling sleepy. If we can't fall asleep within 20 minutes, it's best to get up and do some more processing or something boring until feeling sleepy again.
Get your Zzzzz’s!
