Restoring a healthy sleep cycle. A holistic view on Insomnia

photo by cottonbro studios

A healthy night’s sleep is a critical part of recovering from chronic illness or pain, or simply to have energy, mental clarity, and a sense of health and wellbeing. The odd poor night’s sleep is normal but chronically poor sleep or insomnia is a widespread disorder that can significantly disrupt health and wellbeing.

From a chinese medicine perspective sleep, particular the sleep between 9-12pm is critical to restoring the body’s health and vitality. Sleep helps restore yin-it’s the natural balance to our busy, active lifestyles, and it’s only becoming more disrupted by modern living.

In clinic I commonly have discussions with clients whose sleep is disrupted or not as good as they’d like, with many waking up feeling tired and sluggish instead of rested and energised. Why?

Well the most common disruptor of sleep is stress. Chronic stress is a huge trigger for insomnia-the demands of full time work, responsibilities, cost of living, social media, the effects of technology all impact on our ability to relax and unwind into a natural sleep cycle.

With a holistic understanding of lifestyle we can take steps to restoring a healthy sleep pattern so you can feel rested, energetic and vibrant.

Stress and Its Impact on Insomnia

Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system: the ‘fight or flight’ response and it responds by releasing hormones such as cortisol and adrenal, hormones that make you feel alert and ready to fight off danger-useful if you’re escaping lions but not so beneficial at nine o clock on a Tuesday night in the suburbs. If this response keeps happening, cortisol levels stay activated and normal sleep keeps being disrupted

Unfortunately poor sleep can perpetuate the stress cycle, further worsening sleep so it’s important to break this pattern and establish a healthy sleep pattern.

The common signs of insomnia are

• Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep

• Waking up too early

• Low energy and mood

• poor focus and foggy headed

• feelings of anxiety or irritability.

Holistic Lifestyle Tips for Better Sleep

There are a few things to consider when restoring sleep pattern: the health of mind-body, and the sleep environment. As mentioned earlier, I recommend not sleeping anywhere near apex predators for a start.

Create an Evening Routine to calm and relax mind and body

• Limit technology use and screen time for 1-2 hours before bed. I recommend popping your phone onto airplane mode to avoid responding to texts or scrolling on social media late at night.

• Make activities like stretching, reading, journaling or mindful breathing part of your last hour before sleep.

• A warm shower or bath to help relax the body

Exercise

• Regular physical activity helps regulate sleep-wake cycles. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise, but avoid vigorous workouts close to bedtime.

Diet

• Avoid stimulants late in the day (caffeine, sugar). Avoid caffeine completely for best result but definitely do not have any after midday if you choose to.

• Have dinner at least four hours before sleep to make sure your digestive system has processed your last meal. Eat a healthy, well balanced meal and don’t overeat. Going to bed with a bloated or full stomach can disrupt sleep

Practice Stress-Management

• Mindfulness meditation helps regulate the nervous system and also bring awareness to choices we make in the last couple of hours before bed.

• Mindful breathing, box breathing, or deep belly breathing help calm the nervous system

• Journaling at night can help process any thought or emotions lingering from the day so you can go to bed with a clear and relaxed mind

Create a healthy sleep environment

• keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet to prevent disturbance. If you are a light sleeper this is particularly important. Your body has to cool down in order to drop into deeper sleep phases-hence why sleeping in summer can be challenging on those balmy evenings.

Chinese medicine and Insomnia:

Chinese Medicine views stress and emotional disturbance as something that affects the Shen (spirit or heart mind) which is housed at night in the heart. From a chinese medicine perspective emotions such as anxiety, warming or stimulating foods, being in our heads-too much thinking, not enough feeling, can all cause the Shen to be disturbed at night-leading to restless or wakeful sleep.

There’s no cookie-cutter sleep treatments in Chinese medicine. There are countless herbal formulas addressing different patterns that may cause sleep disturbance-and the health and balance of organs such as the Liver or gallbladder, stomach, and even the bladder can impact on healthy sleep.

Here are some TCM tips for better sleep:

• Balance your activity

  • for better sleep do most of the stimulating, high cognitive work earlier in the day and come the later afternoon slow down, walk outside, cook a slow meal and wind down. The more time you take to regulate your nervous system earlier in the day the better you’ll sleep at night.

• Qi Gong for Relaxation

  • Qi gong is a mindful movement or movement meditation practice that stills and quiets the mind, and can be a great addition to a night-time routine.

Insomnia support in Torquay

If you’ve been struggling with poor sleep, stress, and low energy reach out! I’d love to help you out. One thing I love about the work I do with clients is empowering them with tools such as mindfulness so they can gain the wisdom to live in a way that supports vibrant health and deep regulation of their nervous system, whatever their lifestyle or passions in life.