Did you know…the amount and quality of sleep you get may have a bigger impact on your health than what you eat?
Our sleep impacts our hormones, our weight, our cognitive function, and how we age (to name a few). I don’t know about you, but these are important to me.
When I really started to tap into the cause and effect of my choices and really feel into how I was creating and sculpting my reality, my habits slowly shifted. How I want to feel and what I was willing to do about it, was the result of the choices I was making. We all know it’s our own responsibility, but it’s easy to have a laundry list of excuses that keep us from really feeling our best. I decided that I had to take a second, third and fourth look at how I was spending my day(s). I say it like that, because there’s no finish line. I just keep refining.
Are you making choices that are aligned with the life you want to live?
I learned a lot those years I didn’t sleep through the night. People told me it was “normal”. Maybe on some level within our culture it is “normal” to not sleep, but on a deep level I didn’t buy it. It wasn’t the “normal” I was willing to live by. I knew I wasn’t thriving in my life and needed a shift.. The research clearly shows sleep is healing at ALL ages of the life cycle and necessary for many functions of our brain, organs and general rejuvenation. It is necessary for detoxification, assimilation, reducing cravings, and balancing hormones (to name a few). When we are in sync with nature we are in balance, experiencing a greater ease in our lives. When we are out of sync with nature we experience depression, unhealthy cravings, lack of focus, inflammation, and dis-ease.
I’ve had 3 different phases in my short life of sleep deprivation. Two were linked to educational pursuits and one was for love of a newborn. The most recent version I spent over 2 years of less than 3 hours of continuous sleep. Many areas of my life were taking a toll, but it was clearly important. I was a new mom and establishing new rhythms and routines for my new family. I was so in LOVE that sleep didn’t really matter – until it did. I wasn’t making decisions from a place of clarity, because I was falling asleep in my meditation practice. I was exercising, but taking powdered protein drinks and coffee for stimulation. I was eating 6 meals a day instead of 3 not giving my digestive system a rest. I was staying up late to have “me” time. I was becoming depleted on a number of levels.
Fortunately I was part of a super supportive tribe, community, group of colleagues who were able to help me navigate deeper sleep and healthy sleep patterns that were aligned with how I wanted to show up as a mother. After about a few months of conscious decisions and slow, consistent change we were all sleeping through the night (and staying awake for meditation). A few months went by and the caffeine didn’t have as strong of a hold, I was completely grossed out by the powdered protein drink and craving healthier, LIVE foods.
So now I’m talking about these shifts more and supporting others on the path of greater sleep. A woman in my current 10 weeks to Easeful Living course, just shared with me last night that she is “blown away by the depth of sleep” she is getting since she started the course. Sleep wasn’t her issue when she started, but like a lot of things. When we start to hone in on our health in one area other areas get the benefit. This is one for her and it’s so COOL to me!
In the most basic and obvious ways, the simple choices we make for ourselves throughout a 24 hour period have a big impact on how we sleep. I started eating lighter and earlier at night, going to bed early and waking up early for my meditation and physical movement. I stopped watching netflix and do my best to put my phone down and stay away from the computer at night. The biggest lesson I learned was that I am much more fun to be around when I slept and a better, more patient and connected parent (and I thought I was doing pretty good before).
If you’ve ever experienced insomnia, repetitive nights with little sleep, staying up late to write a paper, woken up with your “to do” list in your consciousness, maybe major jetlag, or woken up to tend to young children, you know what I’m talking about. The compound effect of sleep deprivation is not good! Our hormones get whacked, inflammation increases so we might start to feel more achey in the mornings, cravings for unhealthy foods increase, and the cycle is perpetuated. Lack of sleep can also lead to general malaise, feeling on edge, impatient and in a lot of cases lacking life’s luster. Guess what? This is NOT normal.
There are ways to age gracefully AND get great sleep. When you sleep you have more energy for all that you want to do in life, your skin glows, you are fun to be around, you aren’t depending on stimulants or alcohol to get through the day or particular social events. This is one of the things I LOVE about Ayurveda. It’s about looking at what you are doing in your daily habits and aligning them with nature. In this case circadian rhythm. Did you know that each hormone has it’s own circadian rhythm – how cool is that? They are meant to spike and decrease at certain times of the day, which means they too have their own rhythm. Sometimes it may only take one small, yet significant shift in our daily habits to experience the deep sleep we yearn for.
Download the FREE Tips Sheet HERE and print it for yourself.
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Rachel Peters is a yoga teacher, yoga health coach, lifestyle and habits expert, easeful living advocate, and lover of wild places. She leads others towards Embodying Ease through a yearlong wellness & lifestyle journey to dissolve perfectionism, embody daily habits that promote mental clarity, overall ease, and deeper connection to life on this wild ride of modern living. Learn MORE today!