Mindfulness & Sleep
Does mindfulness help you sleep?
We often hear how essential sleep is for our health, yet many of us struggle to truly get the sleep we need. Whether it’s falling asleep, staying asleep, not getting enough sleep- we all can struggle with our sleep one way or another. Statistically 30% of people at any given time are struggling with sleep.
This week we will be talking about different sleep tips and tricks out there, but today we wanted to talk about how mindfulness can actually help us get to sleep.
But first let’s talk about WHY sleep is important.
Getting a good quality of sleep at the right times can help you protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety. Damage from sleep deficiency can be felt in an instant (falling asleep at the wheel) or extend over a period of time.
Sleep helps your brain work properly because while you are asleep, your brain is preparing for the next day. Studies have found that a good night’s rest is linked to improvements in your learning and problem solving skills. Sleep also helps you pay attention, be creative, and make decisions. Sleep deficiencies have been linked to depression, suicide, and risk taking behaviours. Some low risk side effects can include troubles making decisions, problems controlling your emotions and behaviours, and difficulty coping with change.
Sleep also helps repair your hearts and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deficiency has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and a stroke. Sleep helps maintain a healthy balance of hormones that make you feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin), so when you don’t get enough sleep your ghrelin levels go up and your leptin levels go down. In addition, insulin is impacted by sleep as well. Sleep deficiency causes a higher than normal blood sugar level, which is how your increased risk for diabetes occurs. Sleep also supports healthy development and growth. Sleep triggers the release of hormones that promote normal growth in children and teens and also boots muscle mass and repairs cells and tissues.
This is just the tip of the iceberg on what sleep does for our body so you can understand why it is SO important. We need sleep for so much more than just getting through the day.
So where does mindfulness come in?
Studies have found that mindfulness can reduce anxiety, stress, and insomnia. In order to sleep you need to be able to relax and let go of the day’s stresses and tension. We can’t force ourselves to sleep- our bodies unfortunately just don’t work this way. But mindfulness can make us more aware of the functioning of our minds and decrease our reactivity to our negative thought process.
Mindfulness teaches us to:
- Use breathing to help settle the mind
- Help quiet an active mind and let go of any remaining tensions from the day
- Observe your thoughts as they appear and avoid ruminating
- Use gratitude to soften your mind and relax the body
- Learn how to soften your relationship with sleep.
Some other tips with mindfulness include:
- Breathing: deep breathing is the most basic of mindfulness meditations for sleep. It's suggested to start with exaggerated breathing by inhaling for three seconds, holding your breath for two seconds, and then exhaling for four seconds.
- To combat the wandering mind find a focus phrase or word. One suggestion is "breathe in calm, breathe out tension", which can be repeated until you feel your mind has stopped wandering. A wandering mind is normal and frequent in the beginning, so having a go to phrase, word, or sound can help combat this.
- Acknowledge your stresses and fears before you sleep and move forward by focusing on your breathing. Ignoring your thoughts can be more stressful, so its important to take a note of them but not ruminate- find that balance.
- Be mindful about your environment. Pay attention to how you feel in the room where you sleep and make any changes you feel necessary. Too hot? Too cluttered? Need a certain smell? Make these changes!
- Body scans allow us to be in the moment and identify any stresses or tensions we many be feeling. We can tense them up and slowly relax each part.
- Mindfulness apps can help as well such as Headspace, Calm, Take a Break, or Buddhify
Brittany will be trying out an app this week to see if there are any improvements in her sleep! Recently there have been some struggles in her own sleep routine due to a weaning of medication so she will report back over the week on instagram!
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