Help for sleep

 

Sleep hygiene

• Rule out medical causes for sleep problems. A sleep disturbance may be a symptom of a mental or physical health disorder or a side-effect of certain medications.
• Stick to a regular sleep schedule. Support your biological clock by going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, including weekends.
• Get regular exercise. Regular exercise can improve the symptoms of many sleep disorders and problems. Aim for 30 minutes or more of activity on most days—but not too close to bedtime.
• Be smart about what you eat and drink. Caffeine, alcohol, and sugary foods can all disrupt your sleep, as can eating heavy meals or drinking lots of fluids too close to bedtime.
• Improve the sleep environment. Keep bedrooms dark, quiet, and cool (16- 18c), is the bed comfortable and reserve your bed for just sleeping
• Develop a relaxing bedtime routine. Avoid screens, work, and stressful conversations late at night. Instead, wind down and calm the mind by taking a warm bath, reading by a dim light, or practicing a relaxation technique to prepare for sleep.
• Postpone worrying. If you wake during the night feeling anxious about something, make a brief note of it on paper and try to postpone worrying about it until the next day when it may be easier to resolve.

Night-time snacks may help you to sleep

For some people, a light snack before bed can help promote sleep. For others, eating before bed leads to indigestion and makes sleeping more difficult. If you need a bedtime snack, you could try:

• Half a turkey sandwich.
• A small bowl of whole-grain, low-sugar cereal.
• Milk or yogurt.
• A banana.

Make relaxation your goal, not sleep

If you find it hard to fall back asleep, try a relaxation technique such as visualization, progressive muscle relaxation, or mindfulness meditation, which can be done without even getting out of bed. Even though it’s not a replacement for sleep, relaxation can still help rejuvenate your body.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness can help you to stand back and observe your level of wakefulness or unwanted thoughts and emotional reactions without becoming overly entangled in them as a way of short-circuiting the vicious cycle of insomnia. See link below for free downloads of meditations.:

https://www.helpguide.org/home-pages/audio-meditations.htm

Mindfulness is about putting your mindset in the right place for sleep. It helps you to see your unhelpful struggle with sleeplessness and helps you to let go of it. By choosing to be still and gently taking notice of what’s happening, rather than struggling, you are informing your brain that sleeplessness is no longer a threat.

It might sound strange, but accepting your insomnia is the key to getting you back to sleep.

When you are trying to fall asleep, there is nothing more annoying than a racing mind. Your brain becomes home to a gang of little monsters. Intent on keeping you awake, they eagerly jump from solving your life problems to churning through old memories, then running through the events of the day and revisiting conversations. They can also become catastrophe analysts, relentlessly going over questions such as ‘Why can’t I sleep?’ or ‘How am I going to fix it?’

Fighting these thoughts only brings them back more strongly. However, when you accept and just notice your thoughts, you can look at them and put them into context.

You respect the fact that they are a product of your mind, but you have the mental clarity not to take them as the literal truth. You no longer need to struggle to get rid of them, but rather accept them for the bits of noise or objects that just so happen to have arrived in your head. If you acknowledge them by saying, ‘There goes my mind babbling on again’, it creates distance between you and your thoughts. Then you can let go of them and turn your attention back to being still and calm in bed.

Sleeping comfortably in hot weather

• lower your core temperature by taking a lukewarm shower before bed.
• wear light, loose cotton or linen pjs.
• keeping your bedroom’s curtains closed during the day.
• use a fan and place a bowl of ice in front of it to create a cool breeze

Before Bedtime

• Cool Your Pulse Points: Apply a cool, damp towel or an ice pack wrapped in a cloth to your wrists, neck, ankles, or the backs of your knees.
• The Sock Trick: Putting on a pair of cool or slightly chilled socks before getting into bed helps draw heat away from your body and lowers your overall temperature.
• Adjust Your Routine: Avoid alcohol, heavy meals, and caffeine right before bed, as these can increase your heart rate and body temperature.

Managing the Bedroom

• Strategic Ventilation: Keep blinds and windows closed on sun-facing windows during the day. Once the outside temperature drops below the air inside your home, open windows on opposite sides of the house to create a cooling cross-breeze.
• Rethink Your Bedding: Ditch synthetic materials like polyester, which trap heat, and opt for a thin cotton, linen, or bamboo sheet to absorb sweat. For a more intense cool down, try placing your bed sheets in a sealed bag in the freezer for a few minutes before putting them on the bed.
• Lower Your Level: Because heat rises, setting up a mattress on the lowest floor of your home or even directly on the floor can help you catch a slightly cooler pocket of air.

 

The Cognitive Shuffle

If you have trouble not engaging with your thoughts try this:

• The Cognitive Shuffle is a technique designed by Dr. Luc P. Beaudoin to help people get to sleep by diverting thoughts. It helps you keep the mind off issues that hamper sleep. Also, because The Cognitive Shuffle gets you to imagine random objects, the sleep regulators in your brain may be tricked into thinking that it’s time to fall asleep. The Cognitive Shuffle is designed to stop the brain trying to make sense of thoughts
• The Cognitive Shuffle involves thinking of random items that are easy to visualize, non-threatening, and conducive to sleep.

Example of cognitive shuffle

1. Get yourself into bed, ready to go to sleep.

2. Think of a random, emotionally neutral word consisting of at least 5 letters. “BEDTIME” is a good word. Try not to use one with many repeating letters. “BANANA” isn’t a great word because “BANANA” has only 3 unique letters, B, N, A. “BEDTIME”, in this case is a “seed” word.

3. Gradually spell out the seed word (e.g., “BEDTIME”). For each letter of the word, think of a word that start with that letter. Then imagine the item represented by the word. Repeat this many times for each letter. I.e., think of many words that start with the letter and imagine each one of them. B – E – D – If you happen to make it to the end of the seed word, BEDTIME without falling asleep. Just pick a new seed word, such as SATURN, and repeat the entire process. I.e., for each of its letters, think of words that start with that letter, and imagine those words.

 

Breathing and relaxation techniques

Square breathing

Use your finger to draw a square on your leg while you take deep breaths ; breathe in through your nose for 4, hold for 4, breathe out slowly through your mouth for 4 and hold again for 4 and repeat.

Belly Breathing

Belly breathing, also known as abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing, is an exercise that encourages slower and more relaxed breaths. Most people are accustomed to taking shallow breaths using muscles of the neck and chest particularly in times of stress. Belly breathing engages the diaphragm, an important breathing muscle located at the bottom of the chest.

Belly breathing can be performed by following a few simple steps:

1. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position with one hand on your chest and the other on your belly, slightly above your belly button.
2. Take a deep breath through your nose, ensuring that the hand on your chest stays still while the one on your belly rises with your breath.
3. As you exhale, allow the hand on your belly to slowly fall.
4. Count each breath, feeling your hand rise and fall while breathing with only your diaphragm. After 20 belly breaths, relax and breathe normally.

4-7-8 Breathing

4-7-8 breathing, also known as relaxing breath, is a deep rhythmic breathing technique based on pranayama practices. This breathing exercise involves a characteristic pattern of inhaling, holding the breath, and exhaling to reduce anxiety and promote relaxed sleep. Try this breathing exercise using five steps:

1. Empty your lungs completely by letting your lips part and audibly exhaling through your mouth.
2. Keeping your mouth closed, inhale quietly through your nose while counting to 4.
3. Hold your breath for a count of 7.
4. Exhale slowly through your mouth for a count of 8.
5. Repeat this cycle around 6 times before returning to normal breathing.