Sleep

When was the last time you woke up completely refreshed?

Can you even remember when that was?

I hosted a health & wellbeing day a few ago and remember thinking, ‘WOW…there’s an awful lot of women having sleep problems’!

I often ‘look’ like I’m asleep, but ask me in the morning how well I slept and I would tell you it wasn’t great.

My mind and body certainly didn’t feel like it was asleep…and both certainly didn’t feel rested on waking either.

Whether you have trouble ‘dropping off’, waking in the night or early in the morning then it’s no wonder you wake up exhausted… !

It’s easy to blame this on stress; there is a lot of truth in that, stress is a brilliant disruptor of sleep.

There are things we can do to help our sleep patterns.

We’ve all had those sleepless nights where we overthink, toss and turn until 3am to wake up feeling like you’ve been fighting with the quilt all night.

Maybe you feel like you forgot to switch your brain off before bed.

…and you’re probably right!

The button that you need to switch off is on your central nervous system

Try this and see what happens:

  • If you fancy a coffee after 4-5pm, choose decaf instead. Caffeine can affect your nervous system for around 6 hours – but be warned that Dr Michael Mosely found that many decaf coffees still have a certain amount of caffeine in them, so maybe find a complete alternative.
  • Bath or Soak your feet in Epsom Salts
    Magnesium is well known for its ability to relieve insomnia. One study found that it helped decrease cortisol, the ‘stress’ hormone that can keep you up at night. It also helps muscles relax, to give you that calm, sleepy feeling and help you unwind after a long day; as well as helping you get a good night’s sleep.
  • Prize that mobile away from your fingers
    Switch off mobile phones, TVs, laptops and all tech devices 60 minutes before bed. Read an old fashioned book in bed, and allow yourself to gently unwind and relax into a state of deep sleep.
    Research has shown that the blue light disrupts our circadian rhythm – so if you really MUST watch TV (and for some this is a way of winding down) wear a pair of orange tinted glasses – yes really

So remember to Flick the ON switch OFF!

Night night Zzzzzzzz