How I Got My Sleep Groove Back
The blessing of a good night’s sleep
Each morning that I wake up after a full night’s sleep, I feel super relieved and incredibly grateful.
I fully acknowledge that it is a gift.
It wasn’t so long ago that good, restorative sleep eluded me every. single. night.
You can read the full story about my battle with anxiety in this post, but here’s the gist of my sleep issues…
In the early months of 2012 when my anxiety was at its worst, I would walk around all day in a fog – I was simultaneously exhausted and on edge. It was miserable.
My eyes were open during the day, but I was not actually awake.
Things would happen during the day that if you asked me about them the next day, I would not remember them. No joke.
In the evenings, I would start to get sleepy and could often go to bed at a reasonable hour and fall asleep relatively quickly. But I would never stay asleep.
Sometimes I would wake at 1 am.
Sometimes I would make it all the way to 4 am.
But no matter when I woke up, I would feel thoroughly exhausted AND uncomfortably wired. It was like half of my body was screaming for more sleep while the other half of my body was screaming for me to worry about ALL THE THINGS.
And that screaming battle between my body and my mind didn’t stop for weeks on end.
I’m guessing more than a few of you can relate.
So how the heckins did I overcome this? Well, in the short-term, it took some medication just so that I could get some sleep and stop being a zombie.
One of the tricky things about short-term solutions like sleep medications is that they often don’t ACTUALLY help you get deep, quality, restorative sleep.
However, at that point, I was in crisis mode and just needed to sleep, and for me, meds were a good short-term band-aid.
In the long-term, it took some serious changes to my habits and a lot of trial and error.
Let me provide what I believe will be a some very helpful shortcuts for you and cut right to the chase.
My non-negotiable sleep habits for amazing rest
Here’s my drill:
• I get lots of bright light, preferably sunlight, on my face and in my eyes (without looking directly at the sun) within 30 minutes of waking up. Here’s an entire article about the importance of this habit.
• I fixed my diet and drastically limit my sugar intake. I know this sounds like absolutely no fun, but it is critical for hormone regulation. There will be an entire article about this coming soon. 🙂
• I meditate at least once per day. (This app uses scripture. I have yet to purchase any of the other courses; I just keep using the foundations course. UPDATE: As of April 2020, all of their courses are free to help people deal with the quarantine!)
• I take some magnesium in the afternoon, usually around 2 or 3 pm. (I adore this brand.) I have an entire article about magnesium and its amazing health benefits (not just for sleep) here.
• After dinner, I STOP EATING. That’s right. No food within 2-3 hours of bedtime. This is HUGE for blood sugar regulation.
• When the sun sets, I dim all the lights in my house. Any lights with bright white LED bulbs get turned off. The dim, orange-tinted lights are used. This is so that my eyes and brain aren’t tricked into thinking it’s still daytime. I want my body to start releasing melatonin, and modern lighting makes that just about impossible.
• All of my screens (laptop, iPad, iPhone) are set to night mode (makes the screen backgrounds mostly black instead of white) after sunset AND the screens are set to an amber tone after sundown. If I can avoid screens altogether after sundown, I do. I try to do things like my BSF homework (on paper and with a printed bible), play a game with Ryan or one of the boys, read a physical book, work on a puzzle, etc.
• I switch to my glasses that have blue-blocking lenses instead of my standard glasses. The lenses aren’t amber or red (although I’d really like to upgrade someday), which is why I also make the above-mentioned adjustments to my screens. If you’re looking for some high-quality blue/green blockers, try these. They’re pricy, but they’re the most highly recommended by other health and wellness folks I follow (and trust) and have a nice guarantee.
• I limit my fluid intake after 7pm. It’s no fun to have to pee at 3 a.m. (But those who have spent any amount of time with me known that I am SERIOUS about my hydration during the day. I often make rounds – “Have you had any water yet today? Have you? Drink up everyone!”)
• I spend a few minutes in the evening jotting down thoughts from the day and some must-dos for the next day. Basically, I’m trying to give my brain less work to do overnight. 🙂 I typically do this in my bullet journal, which I discuss a bit in this article.
• Before bed, I take GABA (I use this brand). I also take another dose of the magnesium.
• I keep my room very dark! Light-blocking shades, no nightlight, the whole shebang. The darker the room, the better. If you’re ready to get new curtains, go 100% room-darkening. These look fantastic!
• Once in bed, I use a white noise app to make sure that my sleep isn’t disturbed by the snoring of either my hubby or the dog. 🙂 I really like this one. (I also use the wind-down exercise in that app if my brain is having trouble shutting down.)
Try these tried-and-true sleep hacks for yourself!
Implement as many of these as you can, even if you have to do it one at a time.
The overall goal is to communicate to your body through what you put in it (food, supplements, types of light) that it is time to switch from daytime hormones to nighttime ones.
And be patient; your circadian rhythm might be really out of whack and might take a week or two (sometimes even longer) to get back to a healthy place.
A prayer…
Father God, thank you for healing my sleep. Thank you for guiding me along a path of discovering what changes I needed to make so that I could live more simply and fully alive.
I ask now that you bless this sweet, lovely reader with whatever knowledge and wisdom she needs to address her sleep issues.
Remind her that You are good and that You are ever-present. May she find comfort in those truths.
Please guide her down a path of healing that leads to deep, restorative, restful sleep.
And to YOU be the glory today and always.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
