Sleep Habits for Quality Rest

Gwen, thank you SO MUCH for contributing this piece here at Lumigrate!  Sleep issues are one of the major health problems today, in my opinion -- it is both a contributor to the 'cause' and a symptom/effect that indicates something is awry in the body/mind/spirit system of the person with the sleep disturbance.  There are many components to what might contribute to change for people, and what you've written here can be used as a 'first resort', meaning everyone can benefit from it.

Often times it is difficult for people to make life changes so I hope they will contact you or other people who are available to them to help them with that if they wish. 

Since fibromyalgia is a condition which Lumigrate 'stacks the deck of information' about, this is going to be VERY appreciated here, I'm certain.  And it's funny, it's like this is the topic of the month, as I understand two others who I have asked for a long time to write up about sleep are doing so, both located here in Grand Junction, one while on internship as he has current info from a physician's assistant program, and another from Behavioral Health and Wellness, as they're finding their biofeedback program beneficial with insomnia and have a coordinator of that currently who has expressed interest in writing on Lumigrate about sleep as well from HIS perspective.  He brings with him the recently training he had to become an athletic trainer and naturally the input of Chris Young, one of our long-time content contributors.  So I'll let them know about this here from you so what the write can dovetail. 

Someone I recently spoke with who doesn't have a sleep issue said that when he was a kid his dad told him to fall asleep to just think about the color black.  I've tried it -- it works!  That's so simple, I just loved it!  Seriously, your list, above, is really 'right on', so again, thanks!  ~~ Mardy

Mardy

I agree this issue of sleep is a requirement for quality of life. Our bodies and minds need time to refresh and replenish before starting another day. I know that biofeedback is an effective means to train the body and reinforce the patterns that create relaxation patterns.

I think my focus is on clearing the brain clutter for the day, just as you might physically clear off your desk to get ready for the next day. I encourage people to examine their own patterns that contribute to their state of mind at the time the body would like to rest. Be aware of what you do before you get so tired that you can no longer think clearly.  I think any routine that signals your mind and body that the time has come to put the day to rest is a great place to start. I would love to hear back from other people about their best ideas to wind down the day and prepare for a restful night.

Sleep well, Gwen

Good question, Gwen.  I'll start the share here.

I've tried to incorporate what Andrew Weil discusses in his education related to integrative medicine and sleep, which focuses on that light stimulates things within the brain -- our ancestors for eons lived by campfire or lamplights, essentially.  When I think back on the lighting in houses built post World War II compared to the lighting in modern houses .... there are 8 'spotlights' in my kitchen area ceiling ... there were I think two 60 watt or maybe 4 60 watt bulbs in the kitchen I originally grew up in. 

I am a news junkie -- my favorite day of the week was when Time would arrive and I'd have a new magazine to read in bed that night... I'd typically watch the 9:00 Denver news and then pop back and forth between the local news and Larry King at 10.  As many were made aware, I was devastated when Larry King retired because, what was I 'to do' at 10 now?  Well, last night Piers Morgan's show in the timeslot debuted and he interviewed Oprah Winfrey, and I got a lovely dose of spirituality from the interview when she said (essentially) I am profoundly rewarded by this blessing of an experience of having a platform ... anybody who gets to live with themselves on purpose and in alignment with shy they came to this planet to fulfill the greater mission for themself .... you can't get any better than that! My purpose is about how can I be used for a greater purpose than myself.  I am very clear that my life and purpsoe is bigger than myself, how I can be used for that. 

Oprah went on to say that she believes she got everything she has because she knows how to use it to the greater good and that she's set things up so after her death it is all left so that it continues on, since she has no children. 

So this year I've tried to drop my Time subscription and get more electronic with news, and purchase at the news stand a variety of things, thought I'm finding that not workin' for me and have it on the 'to do today' list to renew my subscription.  I've made a point to read books at bedtime and watch the news earlier, and watch the local news and get my national news differently.  Hence, I didn't even know about the Tucson incident the other weekend until the middle of the week. 

I've been cleaning up bookshelves and making boxes of books to get rid of, to pack away and get other ones out for easy accessing and just shuffle around how my home office space (which was a guest room before), so I've been reviewing lots of books in my pre-sleep time.  Novels I coudn't get into initially and set aside, I'm reading them.  One was so good I couldn't put it down one night, another was so disturbing at a certain point I didn't want to put it down and leave off with that 'scene' in my mind.  So I'm finding that reading about spirituality at night is good, but you've gotten me thinking about doing something more auditory and not visual at bedtime as I've tried to keep the light low but light conflicts with what Andrew Weil's said about light for the last couple of hours before sleep time.  Maybe it's time to cross the hurdle to using my phone's functions or purchase one of the electronic devices. 

Ask anyone who knows me and new technology -- it stumps me and so I put it off.  I like to learn about what's new out there, but not utilize it personally.  I bought a new Apple laptop and kept using my old PC laptop ... I just wanted to not mess with learning something new. 

After reading this, I think I would have been a good Amish person!  

Thanks for the thought process, Gwen.  If you look in the Occupational Therapy forum, I posted something yesterday about the "Ideal Daily Game Plan", which these concepts fit in with.  I'd planned to have people start thinking about how they'd do theirs before I then walked through how I do mine and share that if it helps people.  Good to see the dovetailing that happened here yesterday without our 'planning it' even!  (Dovetail is a word therapists use and Gwen is a PT as well as life coach).  (For everyone's ease, here's a link to the Ideal Dailly Game Plan, which had a good # of reads, so I'll work on it more to develop it further since there's interest it appears: www.lumigrate.com/forum/ideal-daily-game-plan-tool-compensate-cognitive-and-memory-dysfunction [11])

~~ Mardy