Hello Readers
1 in 3…
The facts don’t lie.
115 million people in the US alone…
We’re not getting enough sleep.
With recent events, it’s no surprise people are struggling to get quality rest. As collective stress and anxiety rises, so too do our cortisol levels. This in turn throws off our melatonin production and so our sleep cycle.
It’s understandable if many of us aren’t sleeping as well as we could be. Yet we have more control over our natural rhythms than we often acknowledge. In stressful times, when the body struggles to fall (or to stay) asleep at night, there is something we can do.
Here are a few simple tips we can practice to support our slumber:
Turn off all news sources and social media at least one hour before bed.
Ease your thoughts by turning away from what is happening in the world of news and social sharing.
Spend this time reading, writing, breathing, or listening to music, a talk, or a podcast that settles you.
Stretch before hopping into bed.
The body carries a lot of our unconscious tension.
Taking five to ten minutes before bed to stretch goes a long way in settling both body and mind.
Follow your body as it guides you to stretch out any parts of you that yearn for release.
Practice belly breathing.
Breathing deep into the base of the belly helps to ease the body’s stress response.
This starts our ‘rest and digest’ system.
After crawling into bed, take ten to fifteen deep breaths, letting the stomach rise and fall with ease.
There are plenty of other resources to support you in falling asleep.
There’s a host of guided meditations and soothing sleep music, free on YouTube, among them.
I invite you to practice whatever of the many techniques help you to find release at the end of each day.
Wishing you and your loved ones well,
Jason
SOCIAL MEDIA
Such a nice calm relaxing blog