John Limpus

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Struggling To Sleep?

Last week I caught up with a good friend of mine, Hypnotherapist Nicola Schwarz from London Life Solutions, who had been working with  number of people with sleep disorders.

It reminded me how hard it can be to lose weight and exercise affectively when you simply can’t get a good nights sleep.

For any of you who suffer from poor sleep please read the article below, by Nicola, for tips on what you can do to remedy it.

Top Tips For Better Sleep – Nicola Schwarz

Relax your mind

• Simple breathing exercises can help. Breath, using your abdomen (not your chest), through your nose for six seconds, then breath out for six seconds. Pause for two seconds before breathing in again. Practise this for ten minutes at night (five minutes is better than nothing).
• Take a relaxing bath
• Some people find that lavender oil, valerian or other herbs help them to sleep.
• If you still have problems, you could try massage, aromatherapy, or hypnotherapy
• If you still find yourself tossing and turning, abandon the bedroom and find something enjoyable and absorbing to do. Jigsaws are perfect. Don’t go back to bed until you begin to feel sleepy.

Create a calm bedroom environment

• Avoid turning it into an entertainment centre with televisions, computers and stereos.
• Two thirds of British children have a computer, games machine or TV in their bedroom and could be losing out on sleep as a result.
• Make Sure Your Bedroom Is Not Too Hot, Cold, Noisy or Light – An overheated, under ventilated bedroom can wake you in the middle of the night. Likewise, try to make your bedroom both as quiet and as dark as possible. A comfortable bed – not too hard, soft or small – and pillow will also help create a good sleeping environment.

Keep a Pen and Paper by Your Bedside

• Use them either to make a list before lights out of things that you need to tackle the next day, and/or to write down, and thus ‘dump’, worries that may be preventing you sleeping during the night.

Avoid alcohol

• Alcohol is a stimulant which keeps you awake. It is also a diuretic, which means it encourages you to urinate. Red wine contains Tyramine which is a brain stimulant.
• Drinking is also more likely to lead to snoring, which can restrict airflow into the lungs. This reduces oxygen in your blood which disturbs your sleep and contributes to your hangover.

Avoid caffeine

• Caffeine is a stimulant which can stay in your system for many hours. So avoid sources of caffeine such as coffee, chocolate, cola drinks and non-herbal teas.

Watch what you eat

• Eating a large heavy meal too close to bedtime will interfere with your sleep.
• Spicy or fatty foods may cause heartburn, which leads to difficulty in falling asleep and discomfort throughout the night.

• Foods containing tyramine (bacon, cheese, ham, aubergines, pepperoni, raspberries avocado, nuts, soy sauce, red wine) might keep you awake at night. Tyramine causes the release of norepinephrine, a brain stimulant.
• If you get the munchies close to bedtime, eat something that triggers the hormone serotonin, which makes you sleepy. Carbohydrates such as bread or cereal will do the trick
• Drink a Cup Of caffeine free Herbal Tea eg Chamomile. Unlike ‘ordinary’ (i.e. Indian) tea, it will relax rather than stimulate you.
• Have A Hot, Milky Drink
• Eat Bananas and Avocados during the day – Both are good sources of vitamin B, which can help with sleep problems that are caused by adrenal stress. You can also buy a good vitamin B complex – or Astragalus, the herb favoured by Chinese healers – from a health shop and take it at bedtime.
• Avoid Over-Indulging - eating too much late at night can ruin your sleep patterns.

Set a regular bedtime and wake up time

• Create a habit of going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, even on weekends. This helps anchor your body clock to these times. Resisting the urge for a lie-in can pay dividends in alertness.
• If you feel you haven’t slept well, resist the urge to sleep in longer than normal; getting up on schedule keeps your body in its normal wake-up routine.
• Remember, even after only four hours, the brain has gained many of the important benefits of sleep.

It’s only natural

• Most of us have a natural dip in alertness between 2 – 4pm.
• A 15 minute nap when you’re tired can be a very effective way of staying alert throughout the day. Avoid napping for longer than 20 minutes, after which you will enter deep sleep and feel even worse when you wake up.

Get Some Fresh Air
Studies show that those who get their fair share of natural daylight tend to sleep better at night.

Stop Smoking
Yes, it’s bad for sleep, too. Nicotine is a stimulant and smokers take longer to fall asleep, wake more often and often experience more sleep disruption. I have an excellent success rate for stop smoking (93%) & offer a free back-up session if you start within 2yrs! Willpower has a 3.5% success rate, nicotine replacement therapy 7%

Have Sex

Sex is nature’s best soporific. And, even if it doesn’t work, it’s a lot more fun than staying awake.

Use ‘Trigger Pictures’ To Relax You

Try to conjure mental images of a favourite or fantasy place or moment – such as, say, a great birthday party or idyllic holiday spot – as a way of triggering feelings of relaxation and well-being.

Play Mind Games

Counting sheep is the most famous mind game but there are countless others, such as the following:

- Imagine a room covered wall-to-wall and floor to ceiling with black velvet.

- Describe your home village, town or city in the greatest possible detail, as – though to a complete stranger.

- Keep repeating ‘Sleep, Sleep, Sleep, Sleep’ very slowly until you drop off.

If your problem continues be sure to see a doctor or contact London Life Solutions for a free chat about how hypnotherapy can help you get a good nights sleep.

If you have trouble falling asleep night after night, or if you always feel tired the next day, you might have a sleep disorder. It is advisable to seek more advice from your doctor or a hypnotherapist. Most sleep disorders can be treated effectively.