- Mindfulness

Sleep Like A Baby

Do you Sleep Like A Baby?

During these past few months, a good night’s sleep became a figment of my imagination!

My only assumption is that the stresses of living in a COVID-19 shut-down environment, not being able to visit friends in person, and the conscious awareness of keeping a six-foot distance from others when outdoors all contributed to the absence of a good night’s sleep.

Once again, I’m sleeping like a baby, waking refreshed, less stressed, and ready to begin another day!

Thanks to slight changes in my lifestyle.

Have you noticed that when you don’t get the right amount of sleep, your mind is not at its best? You can’t function properly and may make some serious mistakes. Unfortunately, stress can cause people to stay awake at night. However, getting the right amount of sleep can help to eventually reduce your stress level.

Exercise Regularly

To get a better night’s sleep, I decided to exercise regularly, at the same time every day. While exercise may give you energy throughout the day, when you go to bed at night, it will help you to sleep better. Sure enough, after a few weeks of exercise, my sleep improved and now, once again, I’m getting a good night’s sleep – every night! Some people find that exercising in the evening causes them to be wired, and they can’t get to sleep. If you fall into this camp of people, consider doing your exercise in the morning. I find t that hat energy burst I get after exercising early every morning keeps me more alert and on top of things throughout the day.

At the same time, I cut out my daily glass of wine with dinner, and now only have a glass with my dinner on the weekends. Although this seems counterintuitive as alcohol makes you sleepy, it causes you to fall into a deep sleep. You then wake up in the middle of the night and have a difficult time getting back to sleep. When I don’t have alcohol with my dinner,  my sleep seems to be more even and I can have a good night’s sleep. Yes, I’ll admit, I do sleep like a baby these days.  This is not to say you have to become a teetotaler, by all means, do have a drink with your meal, but limit yourself to just one drink.

See a doctor if you have sleeping problems that persist. Not getting enough sleep can lead to a decline in your health. Sleep recharges the body and allows it to function properly, including building up antibodies to fight off diseases. When you are deprived of sleep, a bunch of problems can arise because of it.

Hopefully, if you do resort to seeing a doctor, she/he will find solutions that are not drug-dependent. This may help your sleep problems in the short term but doesn’t do much to fix the reason why you are not getting sleep. Press your doctor for alternative solutions if drugs are being prescribed.

Meditate

Consider learning meditation as that can relax the mind. It’s much easier to get good sleep when the mind is relaxed than when it is thinking about all the problems you are facing. Meditation won’t solve those problems. But, getting to sleep can help you to come up with solutions faster. I find that meditating for even 10 minutes before turning off the lights puts me in the right frame of mind to quickly fall asleep.

Eating at the proper times during the day and eating the right kinds of foods, can help you to sleep better at night, as well. If you have a heavy meal right before you are going to bed, you could suffer from indigestion, which could lead to you tossing turning and not being able to get a good night’s sleep.

There are several ways to help you get a good night’s sleep.  While these tips work for me, and may work for some in the short term, it is important to create long-term habits that help you sleep like a baby, everynight.

Isn’t it  good to know that there are things you can do to help you get a good night’s sleep?

“The worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

Meditation is a habit that may come easily to some. I have been meditating for over five years, but there were many days I found myself slipping. These days, not so much, not since I completed the no-cost Action Habits Challenge by Connie Ragen Green, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, independent publisher, and serial entrepreneur. You can check it out here.

If you’re interested in revitalizing your life through meditation and would like to learn a virtually risk-free, and cost-effective practice, that people of all ages can do with a little patience and guidance and that will serve you for the rest of your life, I would love to connect with you. You can connect with me here.

I’m Donna SLam, who loves to blog about how meditation brings self-compassion, peace of mind, and clarity to my life and others by sharing tips and strategies to live a fulling and purposeful life. I enjoy championing others to lead a healthy and happy life through meditation, walking, self-development, and spending time with loved ones.

 

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