Lack of sleep deprives your body of its life-force. Tips for better sleep 😴

Waking up tired is a sign...

For many, waking up tired is just a way of life. But it shouldn’t be. Waking up tired is a sign that your beautiful Spiritual House needs your attention and action!

For those wondering, the “sign” reads: “Dear Sleepy Head, please review what you’re doing, or not doing, and make changes for the better so the life-giving rest we need isn’t deprived of us! Sincerely, Your Body.” 💌

Sleep is when the magic happens

As the damaging cycle from a lack of sleep (or getting restless sleep) and waking up tired goes on and on, the reserves of energy we once had get lower and lower. As a result, we become more susceptible to dis-ease and illness.

How so? Well, believe it or not, your body is doing magical things when you sleep! Just to name a few: toxic waste gets processed and booted out; your brain files away new learnings; your cells get TLC and repaired; and your energy gets restored.

Yes, you read that right. Your energy gets restored when you sleep 😴 So it stands to reason that the less restful sleep you get, the less of those vital processes occur – including the restoration of energy.

Running on fumes

When your body doesn’t get a chance to restore its energy reserves, its intelligence realises it has limited reserves to do its critical repair work with. As a result, it begins to make difficult choices like, “heal this wound or keep breathing?” or “fight this infection or keep the heart beating?” or “create more killer T-cells or get toxins out of the kidneys?” – you get my drift.

For self-preservation, your body will most likely default to the needs of your autonomic nervous system over anything else. It knows if it doesn’t keep that system functioning, there is no “body” to worry about.

As a side note for those who might not be aware: our autonomic nervous system operates pretty much everything we don’t think about, like breathing, digestion, and so on. So you can see why your body would be very careful with its energy rations to keep this system up and running.

Why does this matter? It matters because by using all its available energy reserves to just keep you alive, your body has less and less energy for it to do stuff like heal inflammation, infections, wounds, and so on.

You could say that if you’re feeling tired as you wake up each day, day after day, the analogy of ‘running on fumes’ is pretty spot-on.

Don't confuse your brain

Be careful not to fall for the illusion of ‘if you’re not moving you’re resting’. Let me break that down a little more…

Let’s say you’re about to go to sleep, laying in bed, but scrolling through your social media feed or watching a video, you probably feel like you’re ready for sleep because you’re yawning with teary, drooping eyes.

But the constant feed of information you’re eye-balling is doing two really counter-intuitive things:

It’s triggering you to check for, think about, and form opinions about whatever you’re looking at; and,
Your device’s never-ending light-glow confuses your brain: “It this day time or night time body!? Is it time to get up or go to bed?” Because it’s confused with the mixed signals it’s getting, your brain does not produce the right amount of melatonin for you to get into a really deep sleep with.

Sure, you’ll probably fall asleep fast from exhaustion, but you’ll wake up a few hours later – mind a-racing, thoughts a-running, eye-balls zinged open staring at a dark ceiling.

I know there will be some who say, “But watching TV (or scrolling through my phone) is how I get sleepy so I can rest!” Well, if you’re doing that and getting a full night’s sleep and waking up feeling fully rested and ready for your day – then keep doing with what you’re doing. It’s working for you 🙂

But for most, this pattern of keeping your mind stimulated and confused right up to shut-eye time is not doing them any good. They aren’t waking up rested. But they just push through, forcing themselves to get used to being tired all the time – and leaving themselves open and susceptible to dis-ease and illness.

This not what sleep was meant to do. So let’s make now the right time for you to tweak this pattern so you can start restoring your energy reserves!

My tips to fill up your energy reserves!

So how do we ensure our bodies have enough energy to run our autonomic nervous system and heal other things? Sleep. Real, restful sleep to fill up the energy tank of yours!

My simple tips!

Turn the TV off and put the phone away. Leave a gap of “no tv and no phone” at least 30-minutes before going to bed. And do not turn the tv on or pick up your phone once you’re in bed either! For those really addicted to their devices, 30-minutes might feel like going “cold turkey” so start with 15-minutes – but please do this. Your brain needs wind-down time, too!
Count your breathing or occupy yourself with something simple. Remember your mother telling you to ‘count sheep’ to try and fall asleep the night before your birthday? This is pretty much the same thing, except you’re not counting sheep (unless you’d like to!) but your breathing. I recommend doing a 6-count in, and then a 6-count out. If you’re musical or creative, recite some beautiful lyrics or poetry over and over – make sure it’s something positive though since you’ll be marinating in those words for the next several hours after you fall asleep! You’ll be amazed at how quickly you fall into a blissful rhythm doing this!
- Using guided meditations. For some, their mind is wound so tight that using a guided meditation can be a great way to kick-off this process. So in that “no device” time when you’d be resisting the urges of your tv, phone, or tablet – you’ll be keeping your mind occupied by following the voice of the meditation guide.
Repeat. Repeat. Sleep. Pull your attention back to your simple counting or reciting whenever you realise your mind starts chasing an active thought like organizing tomorrow’s meeting, or working out your finances.

The real kicker here is to let your mind catch up with your body. You’ve been lying in bed (or on the couch) for a while, but you haven’t let your mind follow suit.

Of course, there will be those who have conditions or issues whereby they need some external help from a medical professional to get to sleep, but for the most part – using my tips will help you sail off into a peaceful slumber so your energy reserves can refill and you can be a better version of yourself when you wake the next morning!

Big love and happy 💤💤💤