Sleep Help

Tackle daytime stress and worries.

Residual stress, worry and anger from your day can make it difficult to fall asleep at night.

One reason for sleep deprivation is stress, and if this is a problem for you get some help with stress management. 

Stress can come from managing work, family, or if a child’s school can keep you awake at night. 

Learning how to handle stress in a productive way and to maintain a calm, positive outlook can help you sleep better at night.

Try talking over your worries during the day with a friend or loved one. 

Talking face to face with someone who cares about you is a great way to relieve stress and stop you rehashing worries when it’s time to sleep. 

The person does not need to fix your problems, but just needs to be an attentive, non-judgmental listener.

Harnessing your body’s relaxation response. 

If you feel wound up much of the time and unable to let go stress at the end of the day, you may benefit from relaxation techniques such as meditation, yoga and deep breathing. 

Not only do relaxation techniques help quiet your mind and relieve tension in the body, but they also help you fall asleep faster and get back to sleep more quickly if you wake up during the night.

Some popular smartphone apps can help guide you through the different relaxation methods. 

You can also try following these techniques:

Abdominal breathing 

Take a deep breath through your nose, taking the air right down to the bottom of your lungs and filling them with air right to the top, then slowly breath out through your nose, noticing how your breath feels, perhaps cold on intake and warm on exhale. 

When breathing in breath fully, deeply, noticing how your stomach inhales. 

Place your hands on your stomach and feel it expand.  Then slowly exhale through your mouth.  Breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. 

Progressive muscle relaxation is another method in which we can relax our body totally and allow sleep to come over you slowly. 

Make yourself comfortable. 

Starting with your feet, tense the muscles as tightly as you can, hold for 10 then relax. 

Continue to use this method for every muscle group in your body, working up from your legs all the way up to the very top of your head.

Mindfulness meditation 

Sit quietly and focus on your natural breathing and on the way your body feels in the moment.

Allow thoughts and emotions to come and go without judgement, always returning to focus on your breath and your body.

It takes regular practice to learn these techniques and harness their stress relieving power; but the benefits can be huge. 

You can do them as part of your bedtime routine, when you are lying down preparing for sleep, and if you wake up in the middle of the night you can do them again.

Yvette Allen

Yvetteallen.com.au