Sleep Well - Part 2

Further to my previous post regarding solving ad hoc sleep issues, today I’d like to discuss how to manage long term sleep issues (including insomnia) and resetting your sleep cycle.

As I discussed previously, long term sleeplessness begins with waking the odd night and not dealing with it appropriately.  Left unchecked, it’s amazing how quickly your body will adjust and create a new sleep pattern/cycle, one that can actually be extremely detrimental to your health and well being.

The way to tackle long term sleep problems is to create a brand new sleep pattern (well, it was easy to create the old unhelpful one, so by the same token it’s easy to create a new helpful one).   

There are three steps to this and each step must be done religiously if you are to achieve a new sleep cycle – and that means at weekends too.  I know we are all used to sleeping in at weekends (or that’s what most of us aspire to) however, you have to do each of these 3 steps every single day for a few weeks in order to achieve the sleep pattern you desire. 

Step 1

Get up half an hour earlier than your normal waking time.

If you usually get up at 7.00 am, set your alarm and get up at 6.30 am every day (including weekends) WITHOUT FAIL.  I know this may seem hard if you haven’t been getting enough sleep, but in clinical trials it has proved to be the single most effective thing that you can do to cure insomnia.

One of the reasons for this is that if your body gets used to making up for lost sleep in the morning, then it doesn’t prepare properly for sleep in the evening.  On the whole, you can’t always choose when you go to sleep, however, you absolutely can choose when you wake up.  When you shift your waking time, the rest of your sleeping pattern has to reset too.

In order to help you with this, write down the time that you want to wake up and put it at the side of your bed (what gets written down gets done is definitely true in this instance), set your alarm clock to that time, say the time that you want to wake up to yourself before you settle down to sleep.  Doing this will help programme your subconscious and you will notice that you start to wake up just before your alarm goes off.  It’s a very reliable way to wake yourself up if you don’t have an alarm clock too – you don’t need to just use this technique for when you’re resetting your sleep cycle.

Step 2

Only go to bed when you’re tired

Most of us go to bed when we think we should, not when we’re tired then spend a couple of hours wide awake.  What you need to do is keep yourself busy until you feel tired.  Read a book, clean the house, whatever you want to do, do it until you’re actually tired.  When your body needs to sleep, it will tell you.  You simply can’t force it.

After a few days of only going to bed when you’re tired and getting up early, your body clock will very quickly reset itself and you’ll find that you need to go to bed earlier and earlier.

Step 3

Don’t nap during the day

Napping during the day only reduces your need for sleep at night, so it’s really important that you stay awake during the day.  No matter how hard you find it to keep your eyes open, resist.  Get up, go for a walk, do something in the house – just do something that keeps you busy.

Other top tips for a better sleep:

Take regular exercise

Exercise is wonderful for helping you sleep.  Once you’ve done some exercise (and I’m not talking about running a marathon here – just a walk around the block is better than nothing) your body releases endorphins which are often described as the happy hormone and give you a ‘feel good factor’.  They help calm the nerves and reduce stress and therefore, help you sleep better.

Avoid stimulants

Avoid drinking tea, coffee and alcohol before you go to bed.  These substances stimulate the mind and body which can lead to broken sleep patterns.  Instead, have a hot, milky drink half an hour before you want to go to bed.  This will help to relax and calm you down rather than get your heart racing as the stimulants would.

Have a bath in the evening

If you have children, you’ll know that bathing your child at night is an important part of their bedtime routine.  Again, it relaxes the body and let’s your subconscious know that it should be preparing your body for sleep.

Avoid violent films and video games

Watching violent films and playing video games before bedtime will again stimulate the brain (often leading to nightmares).  During the time you are working on your new sleep pattern, avoid these activities.  Instead read books/magazines and avoid having your TV on in the bedroom, it will distract you and upset your sleep pattern.  During the couple of weeks you are working on your sleep cycle, you should remove your TV from the bedroom (if you have one), you will be less likely to turn it on if you wake in the middle of the night which will stimulate your brain causing you to be wide awake.

Well I hope you find these tips and hints useful.  If you wish to read up further on how to sleep better then I suggest you read Paul McKenna’s ‘I can make you sleep’.  Not only is it full of useful information, but it also comes with a free self hypnosis CD which if you play each night will help you re-set your sleep cycle and aid peaceful sleep.

Until next time, have a wonderful day and as always, if you’d like to discuss any issues you may have regarding this or any other topic, please feel free to contact me for a free no obligation chat on how I can help you.

Jo