Understanding the Basic Mechanics of Sleep
Understanding the Basic Mechanics of Sleep
How well do you sleep? It’s an incredibly important question. Do you wake up feeling refreshed and energised, ready to face the day’s challenges with confidence and creativity? Or do you usually feel like hiding under the duvet with a pillow over your head, mumbling a prayer for just a couple more hours of rest and relaxation?
Welcome to the club! The hard fact is that most people today suffer from poor sleep and the kind of lethargy that frequently borders on exhaustion. We live in a high-pressure world where the daily stresses accumulate and corrode our health and wellbeing and interfere with our ability to enjoy a good night’s sleep. Does any of that sound familiar to you?
Tired minds don’t plan well. Sleep first, plan later.
-??????Walter Reisch
Poor sleep can lead to a wide range of health and performance problems. It degrades cognitive function, muddles the brain, impedes concentration and has been linked to the onset of depression. These are very serious consequences! Clearly, a good night’s sleep is not a luxury item on the list of priorities that promote wellbeing. In fact, we can say with certainty that it’s an essential ingredient.
Life’s daily round of challenges also play their part in denying us the proper rest we need when we go to bed. It’s amazing how problems can conspire to rob us of our rest. We lie in bed, churning over the issues that confront us, finding it almost impossible to relax and fall asleep. No surprise then that medical prescriptions for sleeping drugs are on the increase. Ignoring the side-effects of developing a long-term dependency on drugs to help us sleep, this is obviously a poor alternative to dealing with the underlying causes of insomnia.
?And if tonight my soul may find her peace
in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower,
then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.
-??????D.H. Lawrence
If there’s one thing we can do to improve the quality of our lives and restore our minds to normal, creative functioning, it can be found in the welcoming embrace of a great night’s sleep.
If sleep has proved elusive for you, there are many things you can do to improve the chances of enjoying a delightfully pleasant night of exquisite repose. The mechanics of sleep reveal the simple fact that this essential behaviour is very much a series of inter-linked habits. In other words, you can learn to improve your sleep by developing the simple habits that support naturally-restorative rest.
The first step is to make a firm commitment to go to bed at the same time every night. In other words, make sleep part of your daily routine. In a surprisingly short period of time, you’ll begin to associate a particular time in the evening with going to bed.
Next, eliminate all distractions from the bedroom, use subdued lighting, lower the room temperature and banish all laptops, tablets, smartphones, televisions, books, magazines and work. The last thing you need is mental or emotional stimulation just before bedtime. This is the sacred sanctuary where you’ve come to rest. That means no reading for at least half an hour before you plan to go to sleep.
Sleep is the golden chain that binds our health and our bodies together.
-??????Thomas Dekker
If you want to enjoy the benefits of a great night’s sleep, you need to learn how to relax and this involves a very simple but powerfully effective exercise. All you need to do is tense and release every muscle in your body from your feet to your face. As you release the accumulated stress of the day, your body will understand that this is the perfect time for you to power down all your systems, breathe more deeply and sink gently into a deep and refreshing sleep.
As you relax your body and enjoy the peaceful calm that arises naturally with your deeper, slower breathing, you can provide yourself with some very helpful suggestions.
Start by telling yourself that you’re going to enjoy a wonderfully restful night’s sleep. Sow the seeds of truly restorative sleep by telling yourself that you’re going to fall asleep and wake up at the hour that you choose – set a precise time in your mind – and suggest that you’re going to wake up feeling fabulous. Your body - and your mind – will accept these suggestions and put them into operation.
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By helping us keep the world in perspective, sleep gives us a chance to refocus on the essence of who we are. And in that place of connection, it is easier for the fears and concerns of the world to drop away.
- Ariana Huffington
Whilst you’re introducing these very helpful suggestions to improve the quality and duration of your sleep, you might also add some additional and very powerful instructions. Tell your mind, for example, that you’re going to wake up with a set of clearly-defined answers to whatever’s causing you concern in your waking life. This will encourage your subconscious to process all the data at your disposal and arrive at a conclusion that delivers the resolution you’re seeking. Once you experience the astonishing power of your subconscious to deliver insights and answers, you’ll feel much more confident in your life because you’ll know that you have this truly amazing resource at your fingertips.
Try these techniques tonight and see what kind of a difference they can make to your sleep and to the quality of your life. It could be the start of something truly wonderful.
Sleep is the best meditation.
-??????Dalai Lama
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Greg Parry created The Wellness Foundation and the Cognitive Empowerment Programs specifically to help people master their stress, overcome their limitations and explore the power of their true potential.
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