Last week we talked about changing thought patterns to give your brain a rest from stress and anxiety. If you’ve tried some of our tips, I hope they are working. Let’s talk about sleep, because when you live with stress or anxiety, the body has a hard time relaxing at night and giving you your proper 8 hours of blissful sleep, with just the right amount of REM sleep in the mix. You need all the quality sleep you can get!

Inadequate sleep is linked with many diseases and physical problems including immune deficiency. Your brain needs sleep as well as your body: anxiety and depression, impaired memory and cognitive function along with learning difficulties have all been linked to lack of sleep. Even before Covid, the annual cost to the government of sleep disorders over $5billion! It seems we are one very tired nation.

Adults need 8 hours of sleep per night, but the number rises to 9 hours for teens and 10 hours for 10 year olds! Almost 90% of teenagers use the internet after going to bed and a third of our kids have behavioural sleep issues. This is a time when we need to not only limit what our kids are exposed to every night but to take a big grown-up step and limit it for ourselves too.

Here’s the magic answers:

1. Don’t have any devices in the same room where you sleep. Duh!
2. Schedule the right number of hours per night for your age. Stick to it.
3. Set an alarm on your phone to start getting ready for bed half an hour before you want to be asleep.
4. Get in bed, turn off all lights and start counting sheep.

Of course, the sheep thing doesn’t work! But there are many resources for self-meditation to assist with falling asleep. And remember if you have your mobile in bed with you playing a guided meditation track or music to help you fall asleep, MAKE SURE IT’S ON AIRPLANE MODE. Turn the screen face down so there’s no light to stimulate your eyes. For a full list of tips for those who have trouble sleeping (like no caffeine after 3pm and so on) just google “sleep hygiene” and start reading.

If you really can’t sleep, you probably need to exercise more because, believe it or not, it really does make you tired! More about exercise next week…

Would you like to learn more???
Physie Girl and Physie Woman are books designed to help you make changes one week at a time, for 52 weeks. Unlock your potential, not just to become the healthiest you can be, but to become the happiest you can be!

Go to www.physieshop.com to get a copy today!