15 ways to naturally sleep better
Hey guys! I hope January is treating you nicely. I'm doing well (thank you very much for asking) minus, not the cold weather or a cold or losing my favorite gloves or anything else winter related, but because I've been lacking sleep. It's not so much a "lack" as it is a surplus of sleep. Those with sleeping problems brace yourself as I will soon begin to rant about how I sleep 8+ hours a night...
I stay up all night like it's morning, sleep in until I really have to get up and while others go back to bed, I am sooo ready for a workout. "How?" you ask, well I have no idea. I wanted to point fingers at my school schedule and rid myself of responsibility by saying "it's because I have late classes". Then tried to convince myself that (the wreck I call) my sleep schedule is fine because hey, sleep is sleep so doesn't matter when I take it and besides I'm getting everything done. Right? Not right. I'm out of sync with the world around me and it's really starting to show. Exhibit A: I can't go out for lunch dates at 11am if I'm sleeping like it's the middle of the night!). My sleep hasn't completely taken the back seat but I would rather sleep 8 uninterrupted hours insync with the sun and stars and everything else on this side of the planet!
The following is a list of things I'm going to incorporate or re-incorp
orate in order to shift my sleep hours...
take what you need, leave what you don't
1. Set an alarm for when you should go to bed and when to wake up 2. Make a to-do list the night before 3. List 3 reasons why you want to make this change 4. Have good sleep hygiene- Wash your bedding, pjs and yourself 5. Get comfy- Wear socks, use an extra blanket and crack open the window (trust me on the last one)
6. Stop distracting yourself- There are a million random things that I will start doing from 12am up until 3am, that could honestly wait till morning...but I never wait 7. Investigate the harbored ideas around sleep- Ask yourself why you can't sleep or why you don't want to sleep or what do you feel when you try to sleep? 8. Read 20-50 pages before bed- Get some decaffeinated tea and read a little while. Because 1. I told myself I wanted to read at least two books per month and 2. let's be real it makes me sleepy
9. No more laptop in bed- My laptop is honestly my teddy bear and I needed someone to hold me accountable for this one, aka take it out of my reach as soon as the clock struck 12am
10. Meditate on the deepest most restorative sleep you've had in your life- How old were you? Where were you? What made it so great? Who was there? What did you dream about? 11. Lay off the coffee- If you're not hypersensitive to coffee like me, you can be more flexible and maybe just reduce the amount of coffee you're having and/or reserve it for the early hours of the day. Psst try having orange pekoe tea!
12. Don't sabotage- Stick with it! That means don't answer a call after you put your phone across the room 13. Set the scene- Clean your room, dim the lights and add lavender to diffuser
14. Eat intuitively- If you're hungry it's better to just eat then trying to see it through till morning. Vis versa if you're not hungry don't go back downstairs for a second midnight snack 15. Flip the script- Instead of reliving your bad day over and over in your head and playing an active role in disrupting your own sleep; try counting each deep inhalation and exhalation (on a good day i'll be snoring in 5 minutes tops)
Sleep is tricky in the sense that we don't always get the sleep we plan out or our body doesn't cooperate and even our minds refuse to let us get some decent shuteye. It's a personal mental and physical pattern you need to decipher by stepping back and working from a place of curiosity. I'm gonna end this here and rest up because I might be writing this at 3:20am (to be very very honest). But before I attempt to snooze off, I wanted to leave you with this...This is not the first time I wrestled with trying to fix up my problematic sleeping habits and I don't think it will be the last time I revisit this, because I am afterall a working student so I'm not going to be too hard on myself. And besides, this time of our lives is notable for losing sleep, so be patient with the process and be patient with yourself.
Bon nuit les ami(e)s,
