Put me to sleep

The negative impact of sleep deprivation is a vicious cycle. When you don't sleep well, your day tends to be lousy because you are not as physically, emotionally, or psychologically balanced. The effects of that bad day then follow you well into the night. The impacts of sleep deprivation have haunted me as long as I can remember.

My struggle with sleep goes all the way to as far as I can remember. My mother would often sit next to me and try to help me go to sleep, but I would still be awake for hours. What a frustration! As an adult, my mind would spin at the end of the day, and sound sleep would become all but a stranger. Usually, I would have to be physically exhausted to fall asleep, or I'd have to watch hours of TV, eventually nodding off on the couch, only to wake up around 2am. Often after waking up on the couch, I would go to bed and then stare at the ceiling, not able to fall asleep again. More times than not, I'd end up back on the couch.

This morning there was guest (editor from the Huffington Post) on The Diane Rehm Show (NPR). I took some notes while listening to the guest speaker because it was truly fascinating. According to the guest, one of the most important factors to getting a good night's sleep is to have a routine you follow every night. She compared it to the importance of having a nightly ritual with children; for example, taking a bath, then brushing teeth, then reading a book, then singing a lullaby when tucked in. The problem is that as adults, we often don't set up routines for ourselves.

For people who struggle with sleeping, it is important to have a night time routine that helps set you up for success. Here is what I am going to do to help address my own issues:

1) Take my dog for a walk

2) Shower

3) lower the lights, put on some soothing music, and do some relaxing yoga stretches / breathing 4) get in bed and read (at this stage, I should have approximately 8 hours until my wake-up alarm)

Hopefully this nightly ritual will help me relax and prepare for a solid night of rejuvenating sleep.

---