Tired of tossing and turning each night or waking up in the middle of the night and wondering if you’ll ever get back to sleep. Dragging yourself out of bed in the morning when the alarm goes off. Then having to fuel yourself with several coffees and sugar throughout the day to just get through. None of it is fun and puts our whole-body system into disarray, and a constant battle of highs and lows.
Sleep is a crucial part of our wellbeing, approximately 40% of adults report having sleep difficulties and also 40% have sleep quality issues. That’s a lot of adults walking around sleep deprived.
There are a lot of things that can impact the amount of sleep we have and it’s quality, but there are also many ways to put us back on the right track and therefore feeling much more energised and ready for our day.
How do our Hormones and lifestyle affect sleep
Our hormones play a big part in getting a good night’s sleep. The stress hormone Cortisol is needed to help us wake up and the sleep hormone Melatonin is needed to ensure we get quality sleep at night.
Melatonin starts to increase in the body around 4pm and Cortisol will start to decrease, which is another reason you start to feel tired at the end of the day.
If we have too much coffee, refined sugar or stress throughout our day, then it tells our body to release Cortisol to keep us awake. This is one of the reasons we cannot sleep properly.
If we feel so alive and excited after watching an intense movie, go out with friends, play sport or go to the gym, watch your favourite band or team play at night. When we get home sometimes, we cannot sleep straight away, this is because our body has released a lot or cortisol and it is believing it needs to stay awake.
How emotions and stress affect our sleep
Unresolved emotions, trauma and stress have a huge impact on our body during the day, but also during night. At night our body goes into processing mode when all our systems take part in processing the food, emotions, thoughts and stress levels that have occurred during the day.
It heals and repairs our heart and blood vessels, checks on the immune system, hormones, digestive system, nervous system, circulatory system and more.
If our body has not had a chance to process all of these, and bring itself back into a restful state, you will feel tired upon waking or you will not sleep through the night.
Our parasympathetic system also needs to be activated so that it signals to the body it is safe, and it can begin the relax and fall asleep. It will not be able to activate fully or even properly if the body is full of stress and unresolved emotions.
Top tips to get a better night’s sleep
Our quality and quantity of sleep are affected by technology, television, Wi-Fi, mobile phones, stress levels, emotional wellbeing, exercise, food we eat, what we drink and all of which have an impact the hormones released into the body. Some tips below to implement now to improve your sleep.
1. Set up a Bedtime Routine
Organise a set bedtime somewhere between 9 and 11pm. This is where your hormone system is replenishing. If you are still working and not resting during this time, your system is not able to fully recover, therefore your sleep hormone will not release itself at the right time.
2. Work out your Sleep Cycle
During our sleep we have 3 to 5 sleep cycles in a night, and each sleep cycle goes between 90 mins and 2 hours. Therefore, to work out the best time to go to bed, you start from when you need to wake up and work backwards. For example: If you need to wake up at 6am, you need 8 hours sleep and you have a sleep cycle of 2 hours. This means you will have 4 cycles of 2 hours. So, it’s best to go to bed around 10pm and you will wake up around 6am. There is nothing worse than waking part way through a sleep cycle, as you feel terrible.
3. Training yourself into a Sleep Pattern
If you stick to regular pattern, your body will begin programming itself with this routine. It’s like when we travel overseas, we get jet lag because of the natural circadian rhythm. So, we can train ourselves to sync into this natural cycle of sleep.
4. Have a regular Wind down Routine
30 – 60 mins before you go to bed it’s important for you to wind down. Do something that you love – a bath with Epsom salts and essential oils, read a relaxing book, meditate, listen to relaxing music, some deep breathing, gentle stretching. Think of it like when we put children to bed. We give them a bath; they are then in their PJs and finally they are read a story before they sleep. Although we are adults, our brains need the same kind of routine, to clear the head from our day.
5. In the Bedroom
It needs to be dark, at the right temperature, a good pillow/mattress which assists in producing the sleep hormone Melatonin. An eye mask or even ear plugs can be super helpful as well. Sometimes clearing the space of clutter, can assist your mind into a more relaxed state.
6. Reduce the consumption of stimulants
Reduce the consumption of coffee, sugar, alcohol and more. This allows the body to not react and release the stress hormones Cortisol. Particularly after lunch reducing these stimulants will help in training your body to release the right hormones at the right time.
7. Switch off TV, Wi-Fi, Computers and Mobiles
30 – 60 minutes before you go to be turn off these devices again stimulant the production of Cortisol in our body, keeping us awake.
8. Food
Eating too much or even not enough leaves our body in a state of stress. It’s trying to digest too much food or not enough and therefore disturbing the hormones necessary for sleep.
9. Deep Breathing
Reduce stress as much as possible. Deep belly breathing technique where you breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts and breathe out for 4 counts, repeat as many times as you like until your body will naturally drop into a relaxed state. If you are unable to keep up with the counts, then start slowly with what you can handle.
10. Exercise
Allows our bodies to burn off excess adrenaline. Therefore, balancing out the hormones in our body. Also releases happy hormones, Serotonin and Endorphins. Be careful on how late you exercise after work, as it will increase your stress hormone Cortisol.
11. Overthinking or Worrying
Firstly write down a list of all the things that you are worrying about. This helps get all the information out of your head and on to paper. See it like all the tabs that are open on your computer closing down. Then write down “What is the worst that could happen?” Third question “What can I do to prevent it from happening?” Finally, a backup plan “What can I do if it does happen? Answer these questions a couple of hours before bed to sort out your mind. After you finish this exercise do some deep belly breathing.
12. Organise everything for tomorrow the night before
If something is bothering you: organise your clothes, work things, lunch and other items the night before to allow your mind to relax.
13. Affirmations to Relax your Mind
If your mind starts looping and worrying about different areas of your life or you cannot sleep for no reason in particular. Instead of getting worked up about it. Stop immediately and start reprogramming your mind and body to relax. Start by using affirmations combined with breathing like “I am safe”, “I am relaxed”, “I am calm and relaxed”, “I relax my body and mind”, ” I breathe in calm, I breathe out stress”. While you are saying this in your head, breathing using the above technique, smile and allow yourself to let go. It might take 20 minutes but it will happen.
How Hypnotherapy can help you sleep better?
If you’ve tried all of the above and you are still not getting the sleep quality and quantity you need, your body is telling you it needs more support to shift it back into restful and relaxed state. Sometimes we do not know why we cannot sleep and that is where Hypnotherapy can uncover and resolve the reason it feels so alert.
When we have emotions surface that we are dealing with and we cannot let go of, Hypnotherapy is the answer. Unprocessed emotions have an impact on the amount of sleep you get and the quality of sleep you have.
When our mind and body is able to process these emotional impacts, the whole body realigns itself and can relax. The nervous system no longer needs to stay on alert and can fully let go and feel safe.
How does Adelaide Hypnosis work?
Hypnotherapy helps you recognise and locate the memories and emotions that are surfacing in your body, that are disrupting your sleep. These are then safely removed and shifted out of the body, and replaced with feelings of calm and relaxation.
When we access the feelings that are surfacing we are directly accessing the subconscious mind, this is where all the changes can be made and shifted out of the body and mind.
Our subconscious mind runs 95-98% of our life through different emotions, habits and behaviours. This is why it’s difficult to “think” our way out of situations, or even pinpoint the reason why we are not sleeping properly.
If you feel hypnotherapy could help you with resolving emotions and finding the root cause of why you are not sleeping properly. Reach out today and receive the support you deserve.