Have you been sleeping well lately?
A good night's sleep. The struggle is real.
I have been having really weird nights lately and I was blaming it on the moon at first but now that the full moon is long gone, I can't use it as an excuse anymore.
How about you?
I now actually need to step back and start being a stickler to my nighttime routine in order to get a rejuvenating night's sleep.
In our world, which is chock full of the hustle and the bustle and the "business" of our days, we oftentimes disregard sleep as being something that we all have to do, but if it doesn't really happen to the fullest every night, it's considered not a big deal.
It's even considered "normal" because everyone is not sleeping well most of the time. It's almost like cutting corners. Am I right?
Let’s clear a few things up right out of the gate.
You can’t catch up on sleep. If you get two hours one night, and ten hours the next night, it doesn’t even out.
Drinking alcohol before bed means that the alcohol is metabolized through the night and will reduce your REM sleep (or rapid eye movement).
Counting sheep actually prolongs your journey to slumberland.
Cutting corners with your sleep will definitely make you feel brain foggy, it will increase internal inflammation and it will mess with your hormones, as cortisol will go up and melatonin and growth hormone levels will subsequently go down.
Here are some tips to introduce a good night's sleep:
1. Eating more cooling foods
If your diet contains too many foods like spicy food, alcohol, caffeine, and sweets - it’s likely that your liver is overwhelmed at night
2. Cup of Moon Milk
I love this new drink. check it out and let me know how it works for you. https://www.healthyplanetcanada.com/botanica-lavender-moon-mylk-110g.html
3. Darken your bedroom, really dark
The darker your bedroom is at night, the more melatonin you secrete
4. Acupressure Massages
You can find the pressure points about an inch behind your lobe, between your ear the base of your skull. There’s a slight depression there, and if you gently massage it in a circular motion (about 100 times), you should find yourself in a more relaxed space and better able to fall asleep.
5. Hot water foot soak
When you can’t sleep, you’re likely overstimulated. Whether the imbalance of energy is located in the liver, the heart, or the brain, you’ve got to find a way to deplete the energy in the body and encourage the calm.
Helping the blood flow away from the brain can be a game-changer. Soaking your feet and lower legs in hot water expands the blood vessels and draws blood away from the top half of your body.
I hope, you'll find these tips helpful.
Please drop me a line, if you decide to try them out!
Sleep tight,
Holistically Yours
Cordula