7 Tips to Improve Your Sleep

[David Baxter PhD]

7 Tips to Improve Your Sleep!
by Dr Aletta
May 11, 2012

Here are a few quick tips to improve the quality of your sleep:

1. Only use your bed for sleep, sex, and reading that trashy novel your book club doesn?t know about. No TV!
2. Create a soothing bedroom that engages all five senses. Lavender scents, soft cotton sheets, low amber light, quiet, soothing music, even vanilla flavored toothpaste!
3. After the sun sets keep lights low. Think of it as mimicking a camp fire, which signals the brain to release sleep hormones.
4. Have a before-bedtime ritual, such as washing your face, brushing teeth, putting on pajamas, stretching, prayers, light reading then lights out.
5. Go to bed and get up at the same time (within half an hour) every day! This is very importnat even on the weekends.
6. Exercise but not within four hours of bedtime.
7. Remember to breathe! Once you are in bed, breathe a few deep yoga breaths and relax. Do not be concerned about sleep. Your only desire is to relax.

Sleep is essential to our health generally and our sanity in particular. Interrogators know, if you want to break someone down ? deprive them of sleep.

I didn?t appreciate how important sleep was until I became sleep deprived myself. About six years ago, anxiety fed my insomnia, which in turn fed my anxiety. It finally drove me to my doctor?s office. Surely something was very wrong with my thyroid or maybe I had a brain tumor!

A complete workup that took two days and many little tubes of blood? then I met with my medical specialist. With unforgettable kindness he asked what was going on in my life. As I ticked off about five pretty high stress events, I could see where he was going with this, and I didn?t like it. He said, ?Well, that would do it for me!? So the good news was my brain and thyroid were fine, the not so good news?it was all in my head.

No, it couldn?t be! I was a psychologist for God?s sake! Wouldn?t I know if stress was making me sick? Turns out, if you are overwhelmed, even if you are a qualified mental health professional, you are often the last to know. A humbling lesson. The frog in the pot syndrome a over again.

ANYWAY? For a couple of weeks I took a sleep medication to get my sleep back on track. Then I got a crash course on sleep hygiene, learned how to breathe to calm down my anxiety and took a serious look at what I could change in my life to allow a better balance. These are lessons I learn over and over again and now pass on to my clients. For really serious sleep troubles I use cognitive behavioral therapy, the best non-medication treatment for insomnia.

Recommended Reading? A Good Night?s Sleep, by a couple of smart guys at Harvard Medical School.

 

[Peter]

After receiving news that my mother passed away, as part of my grieving, I could not get any restful sleep. I tried everything, except medication, to help me to doze-off. I got desperate enough to ask a friend for advise. I told him about my predicament and all the things I tried. After a few moments of silence, I said out of despair "I even tried counting sheep". My friend quickly replied "instead of counting sheep, why don't you talk to the Shepard!" I laughed at his suggestion and left it at that.

That night, restless again, I remembered my friends suggestion. I thought, "what harm could it do?" So I imagined the Shepard with his sheep and started speaking to him. I told him about my mother's passing, how I felt about not having her in my life anymore. And then started to talk about all the beautiful things I loved about my mother.....The next thing I remember was waking up from a deep sleep.

What makes this work for me is my honesty about how I feel, and what it might mean, and what I could learn from it. The last bit puts closure to the stress.

This was a powerful experience for me. Since then, whenever I am experiencing a stressful sleep, I usually try my old remedies first, but if all else fails, I have a chat with the Shepard....zzzzzzzz

 

[GDPR]

Go to bed and get up at the same time (within half an hour) every day!

I have been doing this for about a week and 1/2. I'm really trying to have some sort of routine with regular hours. I have been going to bed at the exact same time, even if I don't feel tired. If I can't get to sleep, I still stay in bed. I set my alarm for 7:00 a.m., but most of the time I wake up about 4 or 5, and instead of getting up for the day I stay in bed until 7,sometimes I can fall back to sleep and other times I can't.

How long does it take for the body to adjust to the routine/schedule? Will I eventually start getting tired at night automatically and waking up at 7?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I usually advise people not to worry so much about when they go to sleep (within reason, of course). Just focus on getting up at the same time every day no matter what time you go to bed/sleep. If you are consistent about this, eventually you'll start feeling tired at the end of the day and you'll need to go to bed earlier.

If you continue to have difficulty with waking up too early, on the other hand, talk to your doctors about this. It may be a symptom of depression and may be helped via some medication changes or other strategies.