Restoring Sleep and Rest
Restoring Rest and Sleep
I am going to be delivering a retreat day later this month on the topic of restoring rest and sleep and so I have been contemplating the causes and conditions I put in place to enable myself to rest and sleep sufficiently.
I have over the years studied the evidence base for getting a good night’s sleep, which was one of the topics that Ki and I covered in the Mindfulness Based Healthy Living course that we developed together.
The first tip is to get as much routine as you can. Waking up the same time each morning and going to sleep at the same time each day…..and yes that includes weekends too! I do this using the sleep/wake up setting on my iPhone.
Having a regular sleep/wake routine helps to stabilise your circadian rhythms. The circadian rhythm is your body's natural internal clock that regulates the cycle of waking and sleeping, hormone release, digestion, and body temperature. Operating on an approximately 24-hour cycle, it is primarily synchronized by environmental cues like light and darkness.
I have a very gentle morning alarm called ‘droplets’ which starts off very quietly and is meant to ease one into gradually wakefulness. My problem is that Rosie and Iona are conditioned to hear this noise and bounce up and down on the bed at the delight of a new day…..not such a gentle awakening!
However, recently I have been checking my sleep by wearing my apple watch in bed. This wakes me by gentle tapping on my wrist, which the dogs can’t register and so I am able to press snooze without them knowing.
Every morning I go out and walk the dogs. I try to do this as close as I can to sunrise and don’t wear glasses or sun glasses. This enables the blue morning sunlight, as the sun rises, to reset my circadian rhythms each morning, which helps to stabilise them. This is done by the blue light shining on to blue light sensors in the base of the eyeballs.
Getting some gentle exercise during the day, especially out of doors, if that is possible for you, can also set you up for a good night’s sleep.
We also want to avoid blue light in the evenings. Many devices with screens such as smart phones and computers can be set to or automatically move to a red light setting in the evening. Low level lighting, rather than lighting from above can also be helpful in the evening, as the blue light sensors are at the bottom of the eyeball and so are not so easily activated when things are lit from underneath.
I can smugly say, that the apple watch is giving me a pretty good sleep score, it was 89/100 last night, which is in the ‘very high’ category, which I don’t always manage. It’s useful in giving me a sense of the lifestyle habits which are conducive to a good night’s sleep - watching nerve wracking TV in the run up to sleep or eating too close to bed time, do not help!
Many people find a mindful bodyscan, a progressive relaxation practice (you can find one of these on the home page of the website) or a coherent breathing or alternate nostril breathing exercise useful to help them to get to sleep, or to get back to sleep if they wake in the night. I have used all of these during times when I have been particularly stressed or anxious to the extent that my mind is whirling about. I have also heard from others that this works for them too. My usual go to is a progressive relaxation, but if that does not work I listen to relaxing coherent breathing music which dings every six seconds so I know when to move from an in to out or from an out to in breath.
The bodyscan or progressive relaxation practices takes your focus out of the mind and into the body, so that we can take our focus and energy out of thinking and into simply being present in the body. The breathing exercises balance the nervous system, taking us out of our threat and/or drive system and into our soothing system.
When I get into bed at night I set an audio book going, with a 15 minute timer and usually I fall fast asleep almost immediately. Listening to the book takes my mind away from any of the stresses or worries I might have about the day. I am careful about which books I choose and the reader needs to have a soothing voice tone. So, I either choose a book I am already very familiar with, or something unlikely to jolt me out of a drowsy state. Currently, I am listening to an audio book of George Elliot’s Middlemarch - pretty soothing.
We will be exploring this topic on our next retreat day on 18 July at Bridlington Links on Restoring Sleep and Rest. Tracy Connor will be joining me to lead a session where we will be joyfully sewing a lavender bag, which we can put by our pillow to relax us for sleep.
We hope to see you there.