More on sleep
Over the past several months I have posted about my sleep issues—that is trouble falling asleep. I thought this time I would share some of the things I learned that have helped me to fall asleep faster and not end up down a rabbit hole on YouTube until the wee hours of the morning.
I discovered the National Sleep Foundation. They have a sleep diary template that has you log your caffeine and/or alcohol intake, when you went to bed, when you woke up, how you felt upon waking up, etc. Filing in the diary for several weeks showed me patterns in my sleep, giving me an opportunity to change bad patterns.
I changed my brain dump (part of my journaling) from evening to morning. A brain dump is where you take a piece of paper and write the first words that pop into your head until you feel your head is emptied.
I try to turn off my devices by 9:30/10 PM to allow sufficient time for my eyes to unwind from the blue light (emphasis on try).
If I wake in the middle night and can’t fall back asleep easily, I focus on my breathing. This most definitely shortens the time I am awake.
I stretch every morning to loosen my body and get the blood flowing. This also sets the tone for the day to be active, so I have expended much energy and feel tired by my bedtime.
While I can only say that these have helped me to get more and better sleep, I figured that at this time of great anxiety, some of you could use these too.
(Previous blog on sleep)