Sleep – So you aren’t sleeping well, what can you do?

So you have checked out my tips for having a good night’s sleep and you still aren’t sleeping well, so what can you do?

First remember that we are very resilient and our bodies are built to cope with the odd poor night’s sleep.  We have an inbuilt ability to deviate from the “normal” pattern of sleeping which can be a big advantage in today’s demanding world.

Napping

If you imagine your cave man ancestors, with predators lurking around it wouldn’t always be possible to find a nice comfortable cave and sleep for 7 or 8 hours!  There is evidence that hunter-gatherers slept in short bursts of time throughout the day.    This sleep pattern is still around today in babies and young children.   In 2002, Ellen MacArthur competed in the Vendee Glob and set a new world record for fastest circumnavigation of the globe as a solo sailor.  During this 72 day race she had 385 naps the longest of which lasted 35 minutes.  So if you don’t have time for a long sleep or aren’t sleeping well, try napping!

Keep your perspective

Research has shown that people with SAD or depression often spend more time in bed, but not actually sleeping — leading to misconceptions about how much they sleep.  So while I would not recommend watching the clock – as it only makes people more concerned about not sleeping, it is useful to examine your thoughts about sleep.  For most people not being able to sleep properly is a temporary setback—uncomfortable and mildly debilitating, yes—but remember you WILL sleep again.

Insomnia

Insomnia is usually a symptom, typically secondary to something else. It is best characterized as the inability to fall asleep, stay asleep, or waking too early in the morning. These types of sleep disruptions are often indicators of other medical or psychological problems, such as sleep disorders or depression and anxiety.   Insomnia symptoms that last longer than 30 days are usually identified as “chronic” or severe.

Treatments for Insomnia

Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, has become widely used to treat many symptoms of insomnia and is especially useful for relieving chronic or severe insomnia symptoms.  Alternative therapies such as melatonin, valerian, acupuncture and other holistic or compliment treatments including reflexology are also being used for insomnia.

Related Posts

  • Natural ways to reduce anxiety – Part 4

    Following on from my last post on calm breathing, I want to introduce you to calming counting.  The advantage of this technique over calm breathing is that it helps you stop focusing on worried thoughts! Calming Counting

    1. Sit comfortably.
    2. Take a long, deep breath and exhale it slowly while saying the word "relax" silently.
    3. Close your eyes.
    4. Let yourself take ten natural, easy breaths. Count down with each exhale, starting with "ten."
    5. This time, while you are breathing comfortably, notice any tensions, perhaps in your jaw or forehead or stomach. Imagine those tensions loosening.
    6. When you reach "one," open your eyes again.
    As claming counts takes about 90 seconds this is precious time that your body gets to relax and quieten your mind. It is perfectly possible to do this on your commute, as long as you don't drive or at your desk or even in the loo!  

  • Using Positive Psychology to boost Resilience – Part 2

    In part 1, I introduced the concept of positive psychology. Positive psychologists say that it takes 21 days to re-program the brain. They also say that doing the following activities every day can allow you to see the positive in your life rather than looking for negatives, to reduce stress and anxiety.

    1. Write down 3 things you are grateful for in your life.
    2. Write a diary entry about 1 good thing that has happened to you over the last 24 hours.
    3. Exercise - its boosts your mood and reduces stress.
    4. Meditation helps you stop over thinking!
    5. Random acts of kindness - do at least one kind act a week, even if its just sending a text to say thank you.
    6. Share your joys and foibles with the ones you love.
    Finally I would like to remind you that the treatments we offer at Vitality Therapy also help reduce anxiety and stress, click here to book.

  • A light bulb moment

    As someone who from time to time stuggles to digest wheat or more specifically gluten which in the past has created holes in my intestine walls (leaky gut syndrome), I was interested in a recent piece of research. Like a lot of people if I eat too much wheat or gluten then I start to bloat and get digestive issues.  Researches have discovered that the reaction that some people have could be caused by fructans (the sugars in wheat, barley and rye).  The researchers from Monash University (in Austrialia) suspected that the sugar cold be the real cuplrit because people with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) still have some of the symptoms even after following a strict gluten free diet. In a 2013 research project, they noticed that the symptoms of people with gluten intolerance didn't change whether they ate food that was rich in gluten or not. They took 59 people with gluten intolerance and gaven them a different cereal bar to eat each week.  Although the bars all looked the same, one contained gluten, another fructans and the third had neither ingreditant.  The fructands bar increased bloating by 15% and gastrointestinal propblems by 13% and neither the gluten bar nor the one without either ingreditant had any effect. If frutans are the real problem then people with a gluten intollerance could use soy sauce as its low in sugars. While this research is interesting.  For me its a bit of a light bulb moment.  The reason is that I find that I can eat organic sourdough bread and I tollerate this much more.  Organic sourdough bread has gluten but due to the backing process it sis very low in fructans. Reference http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)36302-3/abstract