Here are some of my client’s favorite sleep meditations to check out. I use them aswell. I recommend making a playlist on YouTube and putting the one you will fall asleep to last so it will shut off when it is over (you might be asleep before that). Plug in your phone, turn off ringer, press play, turn it face down, and lights out.
But first, consider a pre bed stretch. Did you know that you can loose up to an hour of sleep per night just from tossing and turning because of muscle tension? A brief, whole-body stretch can release tension and allow for more peaceful sleep. Try some cat-cow or up and down dog poses or follow along to this:
Body Scans
Day Time Sleep – Napping
There is a lot of controversy about napping, with some saying that day time sleeping disrupts the circadian rhythm and will negatively impact your night time sleep. There is also a good deal of data that says the opposite. When you are in tune with yourself, you know what works for you and what doesn’t. Day time sleep has it’s purpose. You just have to know what is optimal for you.
Cultures all over the world partake in a nap after the midday meal. A key take away from that tradition is the nap is short, under 1/2 hour. A brief rest, even if you don’t totally fall into a deeper sleep cycle, can improve alertness, reaction time, memory and over-all mood. Napping too long into a deeper sleep cycle can interrupt your circadian rhythm, make you feel groggy, give you a headache, or worse, you wake up feeling irritable. Harvard health
Some nap protocols to try and test to find what works best for you.
- dim the lights
- take off your shoes
- set a timer for 30 minutes
- play white noise
- lay down somewhere that isn’t your bed (reserve the bed for nighttime sleeping)
Great advice from a world expert on sleep, Dr. Matthew Walker, on naps.
What optimizes your mood and energy? An early afternoon powernap or holding on to sleepiness until bedtime? Test it out for yourself.
A Bad Night’s Sleep
Many clients share how their mood, focus, energy, and hunger cues are affected by last night’s sleep. We all experience interrupted and lost sleep sometimes and the body can manage it occasionally but not regularly. Even one hour less of your normal sleep amount can make you cranky, weepy, crave carbohydrates, and make staying on task painful.
We can endure a bad night’s sleep from time to time. We can. Consider parents of newborns all over the world who naturally experience interrupted sleep until their newborn sleeps through the night. The key is knowing how you respond to a bad night’s sleep the next day and be responsive to those cues. For instance, it is typical to have stronger cravings for carbohydrate and over eat when short on sleep. This is common. Lack of sleep interrupts leptin and ghrelin, your hunger hormones. You might also get anxious over the to-do or the future. So in response, plan meals for the day, edit the to-do list to the basics, and schedule a power nap after lunch. People often feel refreshed after a 25 minute nap.
Don’t skip your training/exercise. It will improve your focus and mood for the evening, even if the session is not quality. I know this about myself because I have tested it. This is why being in tune with yourself is so critical.
Reaching for caffeine feels natural however that caffeine you ingest today can negatively affect your sleep tonight. Caffeine does not clear your bloodstream for up to 10 hours!! Caffeine can be used affectively but we build a tolerance to it so more is needed. It is best used intermittently and not past noontime.
When we are emotionally burdened and suffering, sleep can be extra difficult because we struggle to stop trying to solve our problems in bed. Having a sleep routine and your circadian rhythm set helps because even during trying times, the sleep rituals cue your brain that it is the to sleep no matter what. You will find yourself yawning around the same time in your sleep prep protocol. And that is the message you want to be sending to your body and mind, “there is nothing more to do today. We will think about this in the morning.” You will manage life’s transitions and pains so much more effectively if you can maintain the basics of regular sleep.
Bad night’s sleep happen. It’s ok. Accept that it happens from time to time. Surrender to the night. Start your bedtime prep a bit earlier tonight. Plan to watch the sunset and look forward to it. You get a fresh chance every morning to get your personal sleep experiment right.
Beyond the Circadian Rhythm
In ‘Neuroscience of Sleep’, we defined the human circadian rhythm as our brain taking red light at sunrise, blue light all day, and red light again at sunset, setting us up for sleep.
However something I recently found in the research is that humans also attune to the moon cycles and the seasons. Sleep patterns adjust to the Earth cycles. Even more reason to be not only in tune with yourself, but with your awareness of the plant you live on.
The synchronization of human sleep to the moon phases is documented and research indicates it can negatively affect your circadian rhythms. Closing curtains during the nights up to and after a full moon can assist your brain to stay on it’s desired sleep track. Enjoying a full moon rise is irresistible to me personally, I just don’t spend a lot of time staring at it and let it make it’s journey across the night sky while we sleep.
In the western hemisphere, we are in the Fall Equinox. The sun is rising a bit later each morning. Many of us are very aware that two months ago in high summer, we were rising at 6am without a problem and now we notice that it is more like 6:30am or 7am that we are awaking naturally.
