One of the important things we must realize if we are trying to optimize our health and wellness is to achieve balance in the various issues affecting our health and wellness. Productive work can be a value by providing us with material wealth and also a sense of meaning in our life. However, too much of it can lead to excessive stress which is often followed by destructive responses to that stress such as excessive food, alcohol, and/or drug consumption. A better approach is to balance productive work with rest and relaxation. And part of a program of adequate rest involves getting an adequate quantity and quality of sleep
Psychologist Paul McKenna in I Can Make You Sleep explains that sleep is as critical to our well-being as food, water or shelter. Yet, as a society we don’t always treat it this way. Many people in today’s world suffer from insomnia due to a variety of reasons including:
- Having a sleep environment that is not ideal (e.g., poor mattress, room too hot or too cold, etc.)
- Daily routines that disrupt sleep patterns such as drinking caffeine after a certain time,
- Excessive food consumption and/or consuming too much food too close to when it is time to sleep, and
- Not getting adequate exercise for your body which affects overall health and the ability to attain high-quality sleep.
Not getting the proper amount and quality of sleep can be detrimental to our health in the long-term from the risk of serious medical conditions including heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Chronic sleep issues can even shorten your life expectancy. However, the author points out that adequate sleep of high quality can improve your health in areas such as boosting your immunity and creating better eating habits.
Whenever we eat or drink something, parts of it are absorbed into our bloodstream and others are processed into the stomach and gut. What we eat affects us in several ways; first the chemicals that go through the body and the blood, and second the nutrients released once digestion has started up and processed what we have consumed. A simple rule is fresh foods are a lot better than processed foods. Most processed foods contain sugar, which in turn gives you a rush when eaten and can overwhelm your body leading to bad digestion and poor quality sleep. Fresh food, on the other hand, can be digested more easily and so won’t disrupt your sleep .
Coffee is another drink that people need to be aware of. If you are trying to go to sleep and have caffeine in your system, it will clash with your sleep cycle. It is important to know what food and
drinks you can consume to get a good night’s rest. Listen to your body and its responses to food, drink, etc. and it will help guide you.
Mckenna presents a system to sleep better that is systematic but simple and straightforward. Throughout the book he outlines how simple changes in your thinking and behavior can help you get the quality sleep you deserve.
The author’s approach to presenting his system is to take you step by step through the possible issues that could be causing a restless night. As I reviewed each step of his system I discovered the reason that I have suffered from insomnia since I was little was my habit of watching television late in the evening. My bedtime was 8:30pm and I always slept with a television on in my room. I didn’t understand that I needed a “wind-down” routine before bedtime. Instead I had the television on which was “winding up” my brain the exact opposite of what I needed at bedtime and was causing my insomnia.
McKenna recommends switching off the TV at least one hour before going to sleep . This is because we have a self protection mechanism that triggers a “fight or flight” response dated back to when we were cave dwellers. TV watching can trigger this response. When this happens, adrenaline is released into the bloodstream, blood is pumped to the major muscles, the heartbeat quickens, and the digestive system stops, the immune system is suppressed and everything tenses up. If your body is reacting to shock and excitement it then releases stress chemicals and for some that is too much before going to bed. For this reason, it is important to turn off the TV at least one hour before going to sleep.
Understanding the need to wind down at night has been of critical importance to my sleep and my overall quality of health and wellness. Many of us don’t always take the time to “wind down” in the evening and properly assimilate the events of our day. It is important to try and resolve as much as possible conflicts, decisions left unmade, things we didn’t get done, etc. A routine that takes some time to identify the unresolved issues and figure out what will be done to resolve them on the following day can settle our minds and keep us from having our thoughts run wild when we hit the mattress at night.
Often, our lives get filled with activities that need to be done and it can be difficult to find enough time for ourselves to relax and reflect on our lives. If you have been kept awake by a busy mind, take some time for yourself during the day to problem solve, go over priorities, and to figure out a way to work through those priorities in order to achieve them. Doing this, can give the thinking mind more peace and help transition toward a nighttime mode of relaxation, reflection, meditation, all leading toward sleep. Sleep meditation helps to take you out of problem solving mode and move more into a living in the present moment outlook with a reflective/meditative mindset.
In I Can Make You Sleep, McKenna shows why sleep is an essential function for our overall well-being, and what happens without good quality sleep. The effects of poor quality sleep can cause harm to our health and behavior. If you have trouble getting enough sleep and/or good quality sleep read this book! If you carefully follow his straightforward, systematic presentation the author will really make you sleep!
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