Struggling to sleep? Read on, relax, it’s ok. I’ve got you.
The first question to ask when wanting to improve your sleep is always: how are your stress levels?
Stress and sleep are intrinsically linked; and can form a bit of a vicious circle if we let them.
Life can be stressful and full on at times. Then you find you can’t fall asleep. Your mind is too busy thinking, worrying, planning, coping. Laying in bed, unable to sleep you become agitated, now stressing about the fact you can’t sleep. We become even more stressed and sleep can feel even more elusive. And so the merry – go – round continues. Does this sound familiar? I definitely used to feel like this more often than I’d like to admit. And I know from my client work, I’m not alone.
When we’re tired our resilience to stress decreases. Our minds don’t have as much in the tank to cope with what life throws at us. And our stress levels can mount.
Yes, stress, in so many ways, is so often at the heart of poor sleep.
So I ask you, have you looked at your stress levels lately?
How effectively are you managing your stress levels?
I don’t mean simply listening to a meditation track or incorporating some downtime into your day. Don’t get me wrong, these things definitely help and are to be encouraged. But they can serve as a bit of a sticking plaster.
If you don’t spend some time properly looking into the root of your stress, resolving and releasing as much as possible or putting a new strategy in place so you can respond differently, the potential is there for the stress pattern to simply come back and repeat itself.
To use an analogy, if you’re weeding in a garden, you have to pull the weed out from the root. If you break it off at soil level, so that it looks like it has gone, but the root is still there under the surface, then it will grow back.
You can drink all the camomile tea in the world, make your bedroom as dark and quiet as can be, but if stress is on your mind, sleep will feel difficult. Now in reality, we can’t always get rid of the source of stress itself. It is sometimes out of our control. That’s life and to be expected sometimes.
But what is in our control and what we can always change is how we think and feel about stress. We can lessen its grip and control on us. We can have the upper hand so that stress cannot take root and have a firm hold over us.
This shift in mindset is the change needed to allow sleep to occur easily and naturally once more.
So explore a little deeper, grasp your stress with both hands and gently but firmly deal with it from the root up. This will free up space in your mind for new patterns of behaviour to grow and for that beloved sleep to return easily and naturally.
I get that this may sound intimidating or downright scary. That’s ok. That is just your brain wanting to keep you safe by sticking with the familiar, rather than changing things up and stepping into new territory. Our brains are all about safety, therefore they prefer familiarity.
But change is completely possible. Our brains are malleable and not hardwired after all (thanks neuroplasticity). And this is where I come in. With the support of a coach, you can deal with your stress in a safe, supportive way that keeps your brain happy and still allows you to make the changes needed to get your sleep back on track.
After all, when we sleep well, we are SO much better equipped to deal with any stress that may arise. Sleep and stress are intrinsically linked, they can interact to prevent peaceful sleep. But of course, we can flip this close relationship and use it as the solution as well.
If you would like support with your sleep, contact me today for a complimentary initial chat about how coaching using a mind body approach could get you back to sleep quickly and easily and tame your stress levels at the same time.