In part one, I encouraged you to be kind to yourself through identifying your preferences, your limits, so you can begin to set (or strengthen) your boundaries as one way of improving how you feel. Before I get to this week’s act, a quick reminder about what influences how we feel and a run-down of Acts of Wellness.
How we feel is directly influenced by our beliefs about ourselves, our life experiences (see A.D.A.P.T if your life experiences have left you feeling ‘broken’ or extremely critical about your choices or abilities), the amount of support and connection we have with others, the quality and quantity of our sleep, how often and what we eat, and how well our body moves.
This guide is designed to be picked up and put down as life happens and it emphasizes wellness. Wellness encompasses how you think about yourself and view your ability to make intentional choices to make changes to your life. Our wellness is influenced by our mental and physical health.
Health involves more than achieving and maintaining a certain weight or appearance. Health is about recognizing when our actions are improving our well-being (wellness) and when they are harming our well-being.
I have organized this guide into four acts: Self-Kindness, Sleep, Nourish (food), and Move (physical activity). Within each act, there are three wellness-focused tasks to choose from. These four acts had the greatest positive impact on my mental and physical well-being. Self-kindness helped me build resilience and shift my negative views of myself. Improving my sleep brought clarity and more energy. Nourishment (eating habits) increased my stamina and improved my mood. Overtime, those factors supported moving my body more often and in more challenging ways.
I encourage you to choose an act of wellness; daily, weekly, or whenever you think of it and see how it improves your mental or physical well-being. You can start with kindness or start with a different area. You could hyperfocus in one area or dabble in several areas. Another option is to practice 2 to 4 acts each week over several months.
Engage in acts that are appropriate for you and your life. Appropriate for you acts are something that will make you feel good now and in the future. You may experience a sudden sensation of excitement, a burst of motivation to take action, or an “ah-ha” moment. Or it may include an attitude of let’s see what happens.
Keep in mind, each person has different resources and support as their disposal. Further, bodies respond to food, movement, and sleep differently. Use common sense when applying information from this guide and do not disregard medical advice or delay seeking medical advice because of information you read in this post. I do not make any guarantees about the results of the information applied in this post. I share educational and informational resources that are intended to help you improve your mental and physical well-being.
Before we dive into this next act of wellness – Sleep. I want to note that focusing on improving your sleep may or may not be appropriate for your current stage of life and it’s ok to read through the information here and not act on it immediately.
According to Sleepoplis, 61% of women struggle with falling and staying asleep. Factors that contribute to women’s sleep issues may including caregiving (children or parents) pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause. These factors may be temporary, may need to be discussed with a health provider, or may need a family member or trusted person to share in the caregiving duties.
Sleep – Improves Well-being
Sleep is essential for mental and physical well-being, and for reaching health or body goals. During sleep, the body performs a number of repairing and maintaining processes that affect several areas of the body.
The sleep cycles allow the brain to recharge and the body to replenish energy stores to help it function during the day. If there are areas of the body that need to heal; the brain can trigger the release of hormones that encourage tissue growth to repair blood vessels or damaged muscles, or relax other muscles in the body to reduce inflammation and assist with healing.
STAGES OF SLEEP
The sleep cycles allow the brain to recharge and the body to replenish energy stores to help it function during the day. If there are areas of the body that need to heal; the brain can trigger the release of hormones that encourage tissue growth to repair blood vessels or damaged muscles, or relax other muscles in the body to reduce inflammation and assist with healing.
Your immune system relies on sleep to be able to make more white blood cells that can attack viruses and bacteria. During sleep, your blood pressure drops which allows your heart to take a break.
A sleep cycle usually consists of four stages. For most people, each cycle will last about 90-120 minutes.
The first stage is the transition between wakefulness and sleep. The second stage is a deeper sleep and it is typically the longest stage. The third stage of sleep is where the body performs a variety of health promoting tasks and this stage of sleep will be longer at first, and decrease in duration throughout the night. The final stage of sleep is rapid eye movement stage, and this is where dreaming typically occurs and memories are formed. The final stage of sleep increases with each sleep cycle. As we get older, this stage of sleep decreases.
SLEEP RECOMMENDATIONS VIA CDC
- Newborns (0-3 months) – 14-17 hours
- Infants (4-12 months) – 12-16 hours*
- Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours*
- Preschoolers (3-5 years): 10-13 hours*
- School Age (6-12 years): 9-12 hours
*includes naps
- Teens (13-17 years): 8-10 hours
- Adults (18-60 years): 7-10 hours
- Adults (61-64): 7-9 hours
- Adults (65+): 7-8 hours
Individual needs vary. More sleep may be needed during growth spurts, menstruation, pregnancy, illness, recovery from surgery or injury or after demanding periods of physical activity. Further, some people are wired to sleep more.
It is normal to have a night here or there where your sleep is disrupted, or you struggle to fall asleep. It becomes concerning when it turns into 3 or more nights each week and lasts for 3 or more months and cannot be explained by a health condition, your age, or a life event (caring for an infant, high stress, etc.).
Sleep Debt
Sleep debt, also called sleep deficit, is the difference between the amount of sleep someone needs and the amount of sleep they actually get. Research has shown that it can take up to four days to recover from one hour of lost sleep and up to nine days to fully recover.
Recognizing sleep debt in yourself can be tricky. You may not feel sleepy because your body has adapted to less sleep. The mental and physical changes you experience from lack of sleep may have been contributed to parts of your personality, character, or identity (crabby, short-tempered, angry, etc.)
AFFECTS OF SLEEP DEBT
Chronic sleep deprivation disrupts the hormones that regulate appetite and it heightens the body’s stress response, this often leads to a strong desire for high sugar or high fat foods. When these foods are consumed, they can override our hunger and satiety cues and this may lead to overeating these foods or eating more frequently.
Sleep debt affects our decisions. A study conducted by researchers in the Department of Translational Medicine and Physiology discovered that sleep deprivation results in a tendency to make repeated mistakes despite repeated poor outcomes. This means it is difficult to change behavior, even when that behavior leads to poor outcomes.
Sleep debt makes it feel harder to make healthier/better/different choices that are aligned with desired outcomes (stopping/starting something, doing something more/less frequently). Your choices may lean toward instant gratification; skipping a workout, choosing food or drinks to energize you or consuming foods that do not take long to prepare.
WHEN SLEEP DISRUPTIONS ARE OUT OF YOUR CONTROL
I am going to repeat myself – there are many factors, beyond medical conditions, that disrupt your sleep: having a newborn, having a young child or partner that wakes frequently, your animal or kid sneaks into your bed and pushes you around or burrows into your body. Shift work, shift changes, and shift lengths can disrupt your sleep cycles. Your environment – within your home or what goes on near your home can disrupt sleep.
Before you can do something to improve your sleep, it is helpful to assess what is within your control and what is not. In the previous section, I wrote that sleep debt can make it harder to make healthier/better/different choices that are aligned with desired outcomes such as stopping or starting something, doing something more or less frequently, or doing something differently.
Understanding that lack of sleep could be influencing your choices can be enough to make intentional choices and avoid falling back into old patterns. If improving your sleep is out of your control, shifting your focus to kindness, nourish, or move may be more helpful until this stage passes.
SIGNS OF SLEEP DEBT
- Impaired problem-solving skills to make decisions (indecisiveness)
- Impaired ability to regulate emotional responses
- Impaired balance, reflexes, and motor control
- Poor short-term & long-term memory
- Mental fog, fatigue, short temper, or lack of focus Increased stress response (big reactions to minor events)
- Long-term sleep deprivation* increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disease, immune suppression, and fertility problems.
*Sleep is important, but stressing about the sleep you are not getting is unhelpful.
Sleep Success Tips
The following are basic tips that may help if you do not have a health condition or you are not in a challenging life stage that explains your sleep disruptions.
This is a shortened list to narrow your focus. These are tips you’ve probably come across before; sometimes, the simplest of solutions are the hardest to believe or to put into action. Remember: the body can adapt to chronic sleep deprivation and you may feel “normal” or “just fine.”
THINGS TO AVOID
- Caffeine and other stimulants (medications, drugs) after 12 pm (or earlier if falling asleep is a struggle). If keeping track of this is difficult, try setting a reminder on your phone or pair it with a habit you do frequently, like eating lunch or attending an afternoon meeting.
- Eating and drinking large amounts 2-3 hours before bed IF you experience heart-burn or other gastrointestinal discomfort, or wake often to use the bathroom.
- Going to bed hungry. Have a small snack – an apple, popcorn, toast, half a sandwich. Something that is small and digests well for you.
WHEN STYAING UP FULFILLS A NEED
For some people, the only leisure, quiet time, or alone time comes at night. The kids are asleep, the chores are done, the house is finally quiet, and you can finally enjoy quality time with a partner or engage in an guilty pleasure — binge watching tv, snacking, crafting, etc.
For others, this might be the time to catch up on emails, dishes, laundry, other household tasks. This time may also be used to prepare for the next day.
It can be very difficult to give up this time, even to sleep. If possible, start with devoting one night to improving your sleep.
BUILD A SLEEP ROUTINE
Try engaging in challenging exercise in the afternoons instead of in the evenings (1-2 hours before bed). Or choose exercise or movement (walking, dancing, yoga, stretching) that relaxes your body. Engaging in physical intimacy before bed may help you sleep better; for others, it may disrupt sleep.
Try getting ready for bed earlier: brush your teeth, wash your face, change into pajamas or comfy clothes at the same time as your kids, or after you put the kids to bed, or cleaning up supper or after preparing for the next day. Sometimes, getting ready for bed when our body tells us it’s time for sleep can leave us with a burst of energy and we find ourselves wide awake and unable to fall asleep.
Try eliminating light 30-60 minutes before bedtime. Dim or turn off all lights while watching TV or scrolling on your phone. Turn on the setting that blocks blue light or wear glasses that block blue light if you think using your device impacts your sleep.
Begin to relax 30-60 minutes before bedtime. Listen to calming music, watch TV (and try to avoid binge-worthy shows), do a “thought dump” by writing everything your brain is thinking or how your body is feeling–do not worry about spelling or grammar.
Try a breathing technique to sleep or try a sleep meditation. Google search terms to try: “Sleep meditation” or “breathing techniques to fall asleep.”
IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP ENVIRONMENT*
Keep your sleeping area as dark as you can, as quiet as you can (or use white noise to block out sounds), as cool (temperature-wise) as you can, or as comfy as you can.
*This may require an investment in a new bed, new bed frame, pillows, sheets, blankets, a fan or noise machine, etc.
If all tips fail and you have the resources, talk with your doctor about using melatonin or other sleep aids, safely. Participating in a sleep study may be another option if there have been unexplained sleep disruptions lasting 3 nights per week over 3 months.
Remember, the overarching theme through this guide is to be kind to yourself and that involves unlearning, unmasking, discovering or rediscovering. Allow yourself to discover your sleep environment preferences and encourage yourself to figure our your sleep needs.
Next week, I will post about the next Act of Wellness – Nourish.
If you don’t want to wait, you can purchase Acts of Wellness here or click on the image below.