Tired of Tired?
Are you Tired of Being Tired?
A year ago, I was tired, exhausted really. I had created terrible sleep habits and had even allowed my kids to do the same.
When my kids were young, I was very rigid with bed and nap time. I knew that I needed rest to be a good mom.
As a young mom, I found I became exhausted after each birth or adoption in our family. I had four small children very close together and then adopted an older child who came with her own set of challenges that kept me awake at night. Good Sleep was mandatory to function well and keep my sanity.
When my kids settled into middle school, and their teen years, and I had gone back to work full time I loosened the reins on their bedtime.
I had so little time in my day running two businesses and managing a family I fell into a pattern of little sleep and poor sleeping habits.
It was not unusual for me to fall asleep laying on the couch with my computer on my lap and the TV on. I would tuck the kids into bed and say lights out in 10. I am sure that ten was more like an hour, robbing them of their much-needed sleep. My couch sleeping with the TV and lights on was of no benefit to me as well.
My habits are reminiscent of my own teen years when my working mother would be burning the midnight oil finishing up on her work at the dining room table late into the night and even early morning hours. As kids, we would hear her alarm go off the next morning and know the repetitive motion of hitting snooze was just a part of each day..
I admit, by nature, I am a morning person so don’t hit snooze often, but the consequence of lack of sleep hit me in other ways.
By midday I needed a nap, I was cranky, mean and often would get sick. With lack of sleep came a break down in my immune system. Inevitably I would get a cold that would last all winter it seemed. I watched as my teenagers started to create the same harmful habits I had, and my mother before me.
When you miss out on sleep, your brain pays the price.
A recent study conducted in Italy found that a sleep-deprived brain can begin to eat itself. This study is a bit disturbing wouldn’t you say? The study is a bit more complicated than my horror movie description, feel free to dig deeper into the research or take my word for it, we need sleep!
As a young mom sleep deprived and overwhelmed I used to lose focus, at times lost track of vocabulary and even struggled with recall when trying to communicate. I often joked that with each new kiddo I lost brain cells. In, actuality the brain cells were their own worst enemy, and I triggered their very extinction by not sleeping!
Lack of sleep leads to loss of brain cells and also increases the brain plaque believed to add to age-related memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease.
With my family history of Alzheimers, memory loss and dementia, I needed to reestablish healthy sleep habits and teach my kids to do the same! If you’re tired of being tired, there are lifestyle changes you can make to prevent sleep loss. These are a few of what we have implemented at our home and where we find success with sleep.
1. Create a bedtime routine that is consistent. We begin with a cup of chamomile tea. The practice of making tea nightly triggers our minds that bedtime is near. Chamomile has sleep-inducing properties and has been used for centuries for many health issues. In 2009 there was a study funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine that reviewed the effectiveness of chamomile tea in helping with anxiety. A cup of chamomile tea is a win, win for our busy minds.
2. Use guided meditation before bed. The soothing sound of a trained meditation presenter helps us focus on the moment and not the rest of life trying to jump into our heads at any given moment. I prefer Michael Seely; however, there are hundreds of free options on u-tube. I recommend buying a download so that you do not need to access the internet which brings me to number three on my list.
3. Turn off all WIFI. The Global Healing Center has identified exposure to EMF radiation from WiFI networks to cause sleep issues. Long-term exposure can lead to extensive problems such as hypertension and depression. I realize many of us have used our phones for years as an alarm clock. Some of us sleep with our phones under our pillow exposing our brains to stronger EMF damage.
I see so many studies now on the effects of EMF exposure that I put my phone in Airplane mode when sleeping. I try to keep it across the room at least 8 feet away. We are working with our kids to do this as well and even considering a future main switch to turn WIFI off in our home each night.
As the studies on EMF Exposure become more mainstream, I believe we will all start to wish we had hard-wired homes. We will desire the days of phones that hung on the wall and antennas that needed to tuned before each TV show. These almost prehistoric changes would eliminate some of our EMF exposure and sleep issues for sure. I laugh as I write this as removing cell phones, WIFI and TV in a house of teens seem unrealistic to me in the year 2018. As always I like to say we are a work in progress and I will never say never or impossible.
4. Essential Oils. I am biased because they are how I make a living. If you have not heard my story on why I became an independent distributor of Young Living Essential Oils than you would not know the reason why I fell in love with Essential oils in the first place. Let me explain.
After my son passed away, I was sleepless.
I drifted but would wake with nightmares. My head would race before bed, and I was a grief-stricken emotional mess. I was no good for the rest of my family. Although I used oils before Ethan’s death, I applied them mainly topically or for house cleaning. I had no idea of the therapeutic support they would be for my overworked brain and nervous system. With a friends suggestion, I began to use Young Living Lavender Essential Oil for sleep support in a diffuser near my bed each night. Stress Away, Peace and Calm and Bergamot were my emotional support during the day and the very oils that helped me get out of bed each morning. Creating a consistent routine with essential oils has been a miracle and a gift in my sleep support. So much in fact that I felt compelled to share with others so they too could benefit from the all-natural plant-based support as I had. My new career as an educator of wellness was born.
5. Last on my list is keeping a gratitude journal. Tracking gratitude can be physical by way of journaling. Or in a habit, you create each night by letting your mind reflect not on negatives but positives in your life. Our brains flooded with images from the news to stressful events in our day. Reflecting on positive events, people and attitudes foster a relaxing state of mind putting us in a place where we can fall asleep peacefully.
If you are tired of being tired consider adding these lifestyle changes to your routine for a better nights sleep. I have more suggestions for mineral and vitamin supplementation. Positive dietary changes to make with the foods we eat or don’t eat that will support rest. I will cover those in future posts.
For now, sleep well and don’t let the bed bugs bite!
