How did you sleep last night? This morning I was up at 4.28am. Yes, I know I tell my clients not to check the time when they wake up early, but my sleep had been so restless all night and I knew it was game over. I sat up in bed, meditated for 20 minutes and then wrote this blog. When life gives you lemons…
Why did I sleep so badly last night when actually, I’d done all of the ‘right’ things (please check out my previous blogs for more details on what these right things are)?. As I said recently to a 72yr. old client whose sleep has been ‘up and down’, treat your sleep like the British Weather. It can be unpredictable and there might be unprecedented rain at times (a bit like we’re having in the UK right now).
Sleep is the place where life lands. Especially if you’re a Sensitive Sleeper (more about Sensitive Sleepers in my next blog). So how is life landing for you right now? It might not just be your own life that’s getting into bed with you at night but everyone else’s too (again, especially if you’re a Sensitive Sleeper). We are made of energy. Everything around us is made of energy. Everything out there affects us in here. It lands in your nervous system affecting what happens when you put your head on the pillow. Right now, we’re still recovering from the effects of the last few years, the world is chaotic and for many, life feels uncertain and even scary. And, if you want to go there, there are huge planetary shifts taking place, all of which can affect your 70 odd trillion cells regardless of the thread count you enshroud yourself in at night.
So, as a sleep expert (who knows what it feels like to sometimes not sleep so well), the purpose of this blog is not to advise you to do x, y or z to sleep well but to entreat you to allow sleep’s unpredictability. You didn’t sleep so well last night? Don’t give it too much weight. It’s the weighting that creates the anxiety, that creates the fatigue the next day, that creates the chronic pattern, that leads to the purchase of yet another sleep prop, be it pharmaceutical or otherwise. Loosen your grip on your occasional nights of s**t sleep – especially at the moment given the state of the world. And you might want to bear the following in mind if you didn’t sleep so well last night:
- Trust in the innate resilience and intelligence of those 70 odd trillion cells. If the physiological impact of one night of bad sleep was meant to be catastrophic, we would probably be extinct as a species. Think on it.
- Hydrate well. Don’t overdo the caffeine.
- Eat well.
- Move regularly.
- Mind your language – ‘I’m sooo tired’ tends to breed more tiredness.
- Love well, smile a lot, feel grateful, breathe mindfully and in the words of Wim Hof, ‘get high on your own supply’.
- Nap for 20 mins in the afternoon at some point between 2 and 4pm, and if you can’t…
- Take little sips of rest as you go through your day. Slow down, pause and close your eyes every 90 mins or so, go offline for a few minutes.
Does this resonate? Any comments and thoughts about this, please feel free to drop me a line at nerina@drnerina.com.
And look forward to resting well tonight.
