Losing Sleep? Let's try to fix this.

This week I want to talk about sleep, but before I get there, I want to just quickly update my health journey this week.

What went well?  Actually, let’s begin with what DID NOT go well.  Sigh.  Since I began this cleanse in earnest, to carry me through the time of Lent, I had some trouble the first couple of days with both sugar (as usual) and gluten.  Since I make wonderful organic home-made bread, I was feeling the loss of it big time.  Still, I dedicated myself to a complete break from both gluten and dairy.  This was on the advice of an allergist who thought some of my other troubles with inflammation and such might be due to a gluten allergy.  Genetically Modified grains are wreaking all kinds of havoc on people’s systems, but in order to find out if that’s truly the cause of it, you do have to give it up for at least 30 days to see if that’s what the problem is. 

Nevertheless, it’s been difficult.  And I must confess that I replaced bread with corn and rice, which is not great either.  So this week, I am not going to eat those either.  Seriously, one day I was craving gluten so much that I ate an entire bag of rice chips (the sea salt ones are delicious).  So, that was not good.  If you break one habit but create another one equally as damaging, that is NOT GOOD.  And rice converts to sugar so quickly in the digestive process that I really need to steer clear of rice chips, rice crackers, tortilla chips and so on.  Ugh.  OK, I can do this!  It will be a difficult week, but I can do it!

Now, what went well…lots of things.  My vegetable ratio has gone up considerably and that is wonderful.  My focus is always better away from sugar, so that is another positive for the week.  Yoga four times per week is gorgeous and I want to continue this for the rest of my life.  And since it is beginning to be spring, I braved the cold and ran outside for the first time in months and it felt fantastic.  5 miles around Reed’s Lake with the wind whipping away, but at the end I was on the top of the world. And, probably best of all, I am sleeping like a baby for at least 7 hours per night, trying to work up to 7.5-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. 

Daylight losing time.  That’s what we used to call this in college…when the American clock surges forward one hour at 2 am in the Springtime of every year.  I thought I would use this as an opportunity to talk about sleep, because it’s one of my 52 pieces of health advice to “get a good night’s rest every night.”  But what does this mean, really?

I think if we look at children who sleep a full eight to nine hours per night, we can see what’s needed.  A couple of year’s ago I was having a terrible time sleeping, so I went to see a sleep specialist and she took a look at my habits and did four extensive interviews with me, plus did some tests and such to rule out any major diseases or disorders.  What we discovered is that I have the most common sleep disorder – trauma or PTSD induced insomnia.  Basically, something happened in your life that began to interrupt your sleep cycle.  This could be a huge life changing event, witnessing an accident, being in an accident, serving in wartime, etc.  Whatever the event was isn’t the issue, rather it’s the trigger point that causes the sleep disorder to set in.  So, then, you have trouble sleeping without some help. 

But sleeping aids, almost all of them, are addictive, and they cause “false sleep” or sleep that isn’t truly restful.  So, what is safe and what is effective?

Biofeedback.  Meditation.  Chamomile.  Lavender.  Warm baths before bed.  No television or computers in the bedroom.  A cool dark sleep environment.  No food at least two hours before sleep.  No alcohol (it causes middle of the night waking).  No caffeine in the afternoon or evening.  A bedtime ritual that includes any or all of the above.  You have to make one for yourself and stick to it.  Then you also have to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on the weekends.  This is vital.  So, sleeping for 12 hours on Saturday is not going to “catch up” on sleep loss from the entire week.  All science points to the need for a high level of regularity with sleep.

So, what do I do now to help myself sleep?

I practice meditation before sleeping.  I make sure I am warm (but not hot) and especially my feet and hands.  I drink a cup of chamomile tea.  I do not eat three hours before bedtime.  And if I am famished, I eat a handful of almonds or some other nut.  I read until I fall asleep.  It works for me.  I would love to see more people getting regular sleep…it could make the world a much more peaceful happy place.