With the upcoming change of seasons, daylight savings time and the back to school routine, there are many things that may throw off your natural sleep cycle. So we have dedicated this month’s newsletter to helping you get a good nights sleep!
Can’t Sleep? Be Grateful…
So you may be thinking, “why would I be grateful about not sleeping”? Well, not exactly.
A few nights ago I was lying in bed trying to sleep and my head was just full of all the stuff of to-do’s and worries, and deadlines… Oh My! I was wondering how on earth to stop this crazy train and get to sleep and it hit me “be grateful” so I shifted my thoughts to gratitude, for a bed to sleep in, secure home, beautiful family, awesome clients, amazing friends, life, breath, health – and so on. Guess what?!?! I drifted off to sleep in about 15 minutes.
That got me thinking. Suggestions for getting better sleep are abundant. Counting sheep is the old standby, but a quick Google search revealed it is not as effective as we have been led to believe. So what is different about counting our blessings (aka being grateful)?
The practice of being grateful has an effect on our stress levels.
When we are up all night with worry, it may simply be stress swirling about keeping us awake. Applying generous amounts of gratitude to our thoughts will sooth and comfort the nerves allowing the parasympathetic response of the body to surface more easily. In one research study, making a nightly list of things they were grateful for resulted in the participants reporting longer, more refreshing sleep.*
Try this: Focus on thoughts of gratitude as you rest quietly in a darkened room prepared for sleep. Notice the benefits not just in the night’s sleep but possibly in the quality of your dreams and the activities of the next day. Keep it up! Note to self: release any judgment on priority of your list; get the ego out of the way and just allow a flow of consciousness to express gratitude in the forms and subjects that come to mind, it’s all good!