“It’s 12 am and you’ve reluctantly gone to bed. You toss and turn for a while, trying to sleep. After what seems like hours you turn to check your phone to see the time it’s just 12: 05 am!”
“You’ve hit the bed early only to wake up in the middle of the night. Now it’s impossible to sleep again so you start youtube-ing. Before you know it, it’s time to wake up.”
“You’ve gone to bed but you can’t seem to stop thinking about your future, your plans, your next big/current big project, that argument with someone, or how weirdly GOT ended! So, you take your phone and start google-ing or youtube-ing hoping to kill time till you feel sleepy. Resulting in a very sleepy and tiring start to the next day.”
As a result, you wake up either late or early but feel lazy, with a body pain, can’t keep your eyes open, your brain seems to have stopped thinking and you know it’s going to be a long tiring day!
Any of this sounds similar to you or your pattern?
Yep! It can get very annoying. In fact, lack of sleep is one of the reasons of procrastination and aggression and in many cases even the feeling of constantly staying confused.
Sleep is certainly not over-rated. Yet most of us seem to forget the importance of sleep and just can’t seem to get enough sleep eventually feeling restless, cranky, tired and lazy to say the least. Trust me “the getting some good shut-eye” is not just wishful thinking it’s definitely possible. It may take some time and practice for you but if you allow yourself to be consistent, I can personally vouch for a pleasant experience while sleeping and waking up.
Ready? Let’s dive into it.
So, first’s first,
Why is it so important that we get enough sleep?
During the day our mind, our brain tends to accumulate a lot of toxin. Each night when we go to bed our mind goes through a cleanse where it releases all these toxins from our minds. When these toxins are not completely cleaned due to lack of sleep or not enough sleep these toxins later seem to create a lot of health issues such as irritable moods, anger, unable to think clearly, and so on and so forth. Safe to say that lack of sleep slowly leads to brain damage.
I’m sure you’ve experienced this personally as well.
Situation 1 - Have you ever gone to sleep early and had a good 8 hours of sleep woken up feeling fresh and happy and experienced quite a pleasant day?
Situation 2 - Have you slept barely for 3 – 4 hours. Woken up feeling extremely annoyed and angry and you find yourself all over the place. Nothing in that day seems to go well and you it’s been a dreadful day.
Can you resonate with either of these situations? Which one did you think worked well for you? And which one was a total disaster?
Why do you experience lack of sleep?
It’s not something we intentionally do to ourselves, right? Lack of sleep or insomnia is caused by many reasons – personal problems, work problems, intoxication, lifestyle habits that don’t work well for your mind or body, just to name a few reasons why we experience lack of sleep or insomnia.
I faced it due to a lot of personal problems and my lifestyle habits that didn’t favour me. Eventually this lack of sleep started causing a lot of stress in me, a lot of anxiety, sometimes paranoia that everything is working against me, hormonal problems, anger and irritation, always staying on edge. These were a few reactions I personally faced. But research shows, these are also general reactions that most people tend to face when they experience lack of sleep or insomnia.
So, how many hours of sleep is necessary?
I’d vouch for 8 hours!
But you don’t have to take my word for it. You can try out this small experiment. For a week sleep for 8 hours a day. The next week for 5 to 6 hours a day. The third week sleep for 4 hours a day. Make a note of how you feel and think and how your body reacts to the amount of sleep and rest it gets. At the end of this experiment you can easily choose the number of hours that work in your favour.
The strategies that can help you fall asleep quickly, peacefully and help you get a fresh and productive start to your day ahead.
These are the strategies that I use and they’ve now become a part of my nightly ritual. They’ve helped me get a real good night’s sleep and a great productive day. Sharing these with you in the hope that they might help you.
#1 –Wind up work – I spend a lot of time on my laptop creating courses, blogging and creating content it does get a bit addictive to keep going on therefore after a while I start closing all the tabs that are related to work even if my work is incomplete. I also start cleaning my work space or my work desk and put away all the textbooks and notebooks that I ordinarily use. If I have clients for the day, I don’t take any appointments after a certain time and book them for the next day. This let’s my mind and body know that I’m done for the day. I don’t let my work anywhere near my personal space including work e-mails.
#2 – Pampering my Body – A nice warm/cold shower at the end of the day always helps me feel lighter and my body feels lighter too. It’s sort of a cleanse and its good for the body to get rid of all the pollution and dust. It’s also a great stress buster.
#3 – Relax and Release – I usually practice a few relaxation techniques that allow my body to cool and relax after a long day’s work. Sometimes accompanied with meditation music or any music that’s soothing.
#4 – Thought Dump – So this is something I do usually anywhere I may go. I write down everything that didn’t go as per plan, anything that was unhappy or disappointing. This way I let go of all the negativity all the anxiety of that day that might bother me and disrupt my sleep.
#5 - Read a Book – Due to the kind of work I do I prefer to read fictional books in the night rather than personal development books. But you may choose whatever suits you. Usually a personal growth book pumps up with a lot of energy that may otherwise keep you awake but a fictional book tends to keep the mood lighter. Also, I prefer to read a paper book rather than my phone or kindle. Electronic devices tend to keep me awake.
#6 – Music – I turn up some jazz while I read with a soothing tea. I love how it makes me feel after a long tiring day. I also love how soothing the ambiance becomes. It really helps relax my mind and body and makes me feel really happy.
#7 – No screen – I avoid watching any kind of sitcom during the night. It’s addictive and I land up binge watching the show. I watch a movie instead depending on the time left.
#8 – Muscle Relaxation – Apart from deep breathing I also go for muscle relaxation when I’m in bed and ready to sleep. I start from my toes and work my way up towards my head. I tend to tense the muscle breathe and release the pressure. I do this slowly and for my full body. I also see it as a simple body scan. This helps my muscles become more flexible and relaxed from all the stress caused throughout the day.
These are a few strategies that you can start with and apply to help you relax, unwind and sleep better. Of course, this works only when you’re consistent with the process. If you’re new at this allow yourself to get used to the process without trying to control it. Your body and mind need to be at peace and sync for this to work for you. So, take it slowly and try to find what works for you.
If this isn’t enough and you need something more to help you with your stress you might want to try this 7-day course I’ve designed to help beat overwhelm and repressed emotions.
Take a look at it.
Or you can work with me for even better clarity, strategy and for me to be your accountability partner.
I hope this information helps you in some way. If it does do let me know by liking it and sharing it. Do leave me a comment if you want to add a few more strategies that you think could work and help others too.
Thank you for stopping by!
Love,
Nikita
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