Celebration, Rest and Reflection: The Importance of Sleep

The best way for the body and brain to recover and rest is of course sleep. Research shows that sleep repairs the body, cleanses the brain but also processes information for learning and memory on a deeper level.

Sleep is also vital for maintaining a good mental health. Optimal sleepers have in research (e.g. Hamilton et al, 2007) shown to report fewer depressive symptoms, less anxiety as well as higher levels of environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. At the same time, many people get harmful low levels of sleep, less than 7 hours on average each night.

Make sure you know the basic sleep routine: Unwind the last two hours before bed time, limit use of electronics due to blue light harming sleep, but also the excitement/stress that often is triggered by posts, unexpected news, tasks etc.

Try to do activities progressively slower and use the last half hour as a ritual turning lights off, brush teeth etc. to signal to the body to get ready for sleep. Keep your bedroom cool and dark.

In bed, try relaxation techniques to ensure the body is relaxed and breathe slowly to assist the body/the parasympathetic nervous system to get into sleep mode which also relaxes the sympathetic nervous system – the awake/fight-flight system.

Try not to think about worrisome topics but postpone them until tomorrow at breakfast, see technique in upcoming post, since this is not the time for optimal problem solving and it will likely trigger stress hormones making it impossible to
sleep.

Sunday is also for celebration of you! I suggest you find a self-care activity: a delicious and nutritious meal, foot-bath, pedicure, facial mask, nailcare/manicure, hair treatment, body-peel, in-home massage, a nice shower-gel, creme etc. that you do every Sunday to honour your strivings and everything you have done and are proud of this last week.

Life is always a work in progress…

#stress #mentalrecovery #sleephabits #relaxation #selfhelp #psychologicalwellbeing #positivepsychology