NAVIGATING SLEEP AND STRESS

One of the most important things in our life is sleep. Everyone of us spends more than one third of his or her time sleeping. Sleep is survival. When we sleep, we are involving numerous structures of our brain.

Without sleep, we cannot maintain a proper brain function. We will not be able to learn and create memories; and it will become very hard to focus on any task. While, we may have never asked ourselves: "Why we sleep?", we most certainly appreciate how much better a good night's sleep makes us feel. When we sleep, we feel more alert, happier, more comfortable, and more energetic. However, when we experience a sleepless night, we end up having a bad day in most cases.

Our body needs sleep as much as it needs food, water, and air and is considered a life sustaining activity. According to the "National Sleep Foundation" forty five percent of Americans experience insufficient sleep which affects their daily activities. And, thirty five percent of Americans sleep the right number of hours per night; but have a poor quality of sleep. It has been shown that sixty seven percent of adults who have a poor to fair sleep quality, also have that poor health quality. This justifies the need to start developing a healthy sleep pattern.

But many of us experience so much stress throughout the day, both good stress, like exciting news, and bad stress like a deadline being moved up.

In our "downtime" we often reach for technology and things like social media which often still cause our cortisol to rise.

Cortisol is constantly rising when we don't take the time to relax and create true downtime for ourselves. By the time we lay down to sleep, it would be ideal if we could just close our eyes, fall asleep, and wake up with the morning sun feeling refreshed, but often one of two things happens; either we're totally exhausted from the day and we pass out and wake up at two or three in the morning from racing thoughts and feelings of stress, or we are so wound up from stress that we can't even fall asleep.

There is always an underlying reason why you're not sleeping, because our bodies are designed to sleep. If it's stress or anxiety, what are you anxious about? What are you stressed about? Is it about an acute stressor, something that just happened today? Or is it about a chronic stressor, something that's been going on for a long time?

Take a moment to reflect on your sleep. What issues are you facing when it comes to your sleep? If you are anxious or stressed, what is it about? Do you have a health concern? Do you have concerns about friends, family, work, the future?

Common blocks to why we can't sleep:

1) Stress: general stress we feel from the day and life.

2) Monkey Mind: jumping from one thing to the next, without any finality.

3) Triggering the stress response from watching the news: we can be in a relaxed

position, but still have a stress response when we see or hear upsetting things.

4) Bad habits with technology.

5) Not having a bedtime routine: stalling and not really preparing for bed.

6) Pain or discomfort.

Now -- take a moment and reflect back on this list, and consider if any of these blocks are part of what impacts your ability to sleep well.

You might want to jot down these following recommendations for a better night's sleep:

1) Do something relaxing before bed: a bath, meditation, or whatever helps you decompress and calm down.

2) Have a consistent nightly bedtime routine: do the same things at the same times each night.

3) Wind-down reminder; set a wind-down alarm that either means it's time to stop watching tv, or stop any projects and start your bed-time routine.

4) Do a brain dump; take a sheet of paper and write down all the things you're

thinking about, especially things you're worried, frustrated, angry, concerned,

or upset about. Once you are done, you can rip up your sheet of paper and throw it away.

What time would you like your bedtime routine to begin? Try to choose a time you can commit to consistently, and remember, you don't have to do it perfectly, the important thing is to MAKE A CHOICE!!

Tara Genusa

Stress Coach/COR.E Wellbeing Dynamics Specialist

Stressreliefsolutions.net

tara@stressreliefsoluts.net

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Tara Genusa - Certified Life Coach