The 7 best systems for fixing your sleep

If there is one health thing that busy business people most struggle with it is consistent good quality sleep, there is often so much to do and so many ideas, challenges and to do's flying around our brains that switching off isn't always easy but it is easy to build a habit of not switching off. It is then that we suffer the consequences, not just of insufficient sleep but the impact that has on eating, energy, mood, aches and pain, focus, illness and our ability to manage stress. 

Sleep is one of those health things that always seem to come with a sales pitch like water. Get 8 glasses per day or get 8 hours per night. When put under scrutiny by someone who is experiencing actual difficulty the advice is next to useless. 

I’ve had times in my life when I’d set things up in such a way that 8 hours has just not been possible, work and family life just wouldn’t allow it. I’ve had times in my life when I’ve got more than 8 hours sleep and not felt great on it, I’ve had times in my life when I’ve made the 8 hours available and my brain decided for some unknown reason that it wasn’t going to let me get to sleep or it was going to waking me up at 3am and not let me get back to sleep. Sleep is clearly, more complicated than often billed. 

Presumably, as you are reading this you would very much like your sleep to improve, my goal in writing this is to make that happen, from tonight and onwards: 

Sleep is an involuntary act - This might not seem pertinent, it may be that you haven’t even consider how sleep occurs but this belief is crucial to getting a good night sleep. Thinking that we can will it to happen creates frustration and upset and these emotions are sleep resistant. In order to remove this block the goal posts need to be moved, we cannot guarantee sleep but we can guarantee mindful rest, so make that the goal, relaxing in a dark room. Our brain will build on a win more readily than on a loss. 

Lose the value you attach to the number of hours of sleep - as I mentioned in the introduction, the magic number 8 is arbitrary, if sleep is involuntary and it is, then having a number that means WIN leaves many other numbers that mean lose. I’ve been there, we know the time we need to wake up and we look at the clock and then count down. We decide in advance whether we will survive the next day based on the number we get back. “If I fall asleep now I will be ok”… “If I fall asleep now, I’ll cope…” “If I fall asleep now I will survive, maybe” “If I fall asleep in an hour I won’t cope”. With each passing minute our frustrating and anxiety increases and by extension the stress hormone cortisol, the very hormone that needs to go down in order to fall asleep. Instead, shift your focus to practising mindfulness and letting go of thoughts, not stopping them coming at all but releasing them when they do. Focus on body awareness and slow controlled breathing. We cannot control how many hours we get but we can control how we feel about it. Accepting what is true is the only real way to change it. 

Address the day- Our sleep cycle, rather than being the time we sleep to the time we wake is part of a 24 hour human cycle called the circadian rhythm. This rhythm is the name given to the natural peaks and troughs of the hormones that govern many of the automatic systems that occur during the day. The time we wake up, the time we pee, the time we poo, the time we are at our most productive, the time we are most focused, the times we are hungry, the time we are our strongest, the time we are at our lowest energy, the time we fall asleep. The more consistent the day the more consistent the night. Ask yourself, what could be confusing my hormones? Excessive stimulants like caffeine, depressants like alcohol, low water intake, not enough or inconsistent food intake, irregular meal times, inactivity - all of them play their part. why not play with each one and measure it against your sleep. 

Consistency- It’s back to the circadian rhythm again but those hormones really are a stickler for consistency. If you start messing with sleepy time and wakey time any day of the week you will pay the price. If you’re up at 6am every morning then it has to be EVERY morning, trying to win back sleep with an extra two hours on Saturday and Sunday morning might feel good at the time but it will send your rhythms all over the place for the following week leaving you tired, confused and still out of alignment. For best results focus on fixing the rhythm, if you’re desperate then a 30 minute afternoon siesta shouldn’t impact the cycle. 

Fix your digestion - This might be getting a little confusing now but sleep has been covered extensively but like I said, this is about fixing those things that most impact your rhythms. It isn’t about fixing sleep, its about removing those things that might be obstructing sleep. Many studies have demonstrated a connection between digestive issues without clearly pin-pointing the reason behind it. There is still a lot to learn about the brain-gut connection but fortunately we aren’t looking to produce an academic paper we are looking to improve sleep. How you feel always trumps the science. So here are a couple of simple tips to improve digestion. Drink 1.5ltrs of water before you eat anything in the morning. Avoiding eating on the go. Cut down on processed foods. 

Shut your mouth - Mouth breathing is a common side effect of stress that can seriously impact your sleep. Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system which results in shallow, rapid, abnormal, mouth breathing. Hay fever, asthma, sinus issues, allergies can cause mouth breathing too. On top of this it can create snoring, dry mouth, increased illness, Chronic fatigue, brain fog and circles around the eyes. The nose produces nitric oxide which improves the lungs ability to absorb oxygen and to transport oxygen through the body. Nitric oxide is also anti fungal, antiviral, anti parasitic, antibacterial and aids the immune system. In short, we are supposed to breath through our nose most of the time. When we don’t, sleep goes wrong. This can be practised during the day. Try doing 5 minutes of the following 2 times per day for 30 days. Sit down and get comfortable. Breathe in through the nose into the stomach, breathe in for 5 seconds so gently that you cannot feel the air, now let the air drift out again without feeling the exhaling air and repeat. You should feel that you want to breathe more, about a 6 out of 10 on the uncomfortableometer if you’re over breathing and or mouth breathing this should correct the issue and aid sleep. 

Prepare your brain for sleep, excite your brain for morning - We perform well when we prepare. We warm up for exercise, boxers get themselves pumped for a fight, we prime our body for digesting with food preparation and smells and imagination. All of this preparation or priming is your brain, nervous system and endocrine system getting the body ready for what is to come so that it can do it to the best of it’s ability. This happens organically all of the time. The sun prepares us for being awake and alert, music can fill us with the same emotions we experienced the first time we heard it, whether that was a time of joy or sorrow. The point is that our environment determines our behaviour. Rather than crashing into sleep we can create a ritual that build up to it. We can turn the lights down, remove work and play related things like technology, we can allow our brains to escape into a novel, we can pour relaxing chemicals into our mouths like camomile tea, we can stretch and relax our breathing, we can scent our room with relaxing smells like lavender, we can increase our comfort with a shower and soft clothing. Have fun with it, list all of your senses and then place something that triggers relaxation of that sense next to it. Then build a ritual to perform for the last hour before you predetermined sleep time and start practising. Now do the same for the morning, I personally begin my day with meditation, 5 minutes of low intensity exercise and some writing, I then listen to a educational book as I cycle my daughter to school. This makes me look forward to the morning, because I look forward to it my brain begins to prepare me for being awake at the necessary time to do it.  

Sleep is a difficult thing to fix because we cannot directly influence it, trying harder pushes it further away from us, it is in lowering the bar of success and then preparing ourselves to be successful that we can most influence sleep.

You don't need to implement all 7, just start with what most resonates with you or feels most easy to deal with. 

Sweet Dreams 

Ed Ley