In many cases, sleep is the missing ingredient to healing and feeling your best! But what if you have insomnia? Listen in while I share 5 tips that have worked wonders in my own life…
Enjoy! 🙂
Health & happiness,
Deborah xo
Full transcription available at the bottom of this blog post.
Want to learn the 6 Steps that I have personally used to turn my life around. Check it out here: www.deborahlobart.com/book
Or, snag my 10 Steps To More Energy, A Clearer Mind & A Better Mood at: https://deborahlobart.com/freebie/
All of my product recommendations can be found at https://deborahlobart.com/my-favorite-things/
FB Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theholisticmompreneur
Instagram: www.instagram.com/deborahlobart
Business Inquiries: deb@deborahlobart.com
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Sometimes we try so hard trying to figure out the answers of how to feel better. We’re running around all the time. We’re running to the yoga class or running to the grocery store. We’re doing this or doing that, when really if we can just figure out a way on how to sleep more, we’d feel better. People don’t realize how exhausted their bodies are. Many people call themselves night owls, but they’re functioning on a reserve battery to keep that nighttime thing going. We want to be in harmony with nature because then were honoring our natural rhythms. Now, a great tip that I learned a few years ago is to go to bed early. Okay? Even if you can’t sleep because having the body horizontal helps the body rebalance itself. So, for example, I learned that we get a second wind at 10 p.m. Therefore, to avoid that second wind we have to get ourselves horizontal before 10 p.m. So, I’ll do my whole night time routine, which I’m going to share with you in a moment, but I start that at about 8:30 p.m. So that I’m ready to be lying down at 9:30 p.m. So that I can fall asleep.
Now many people will say but have so much to do I can’t go to bed that early. But those two to three hours at night that you think you’re losing from, you know, getting everything that you want to do done. You’re getting it back in the morning because you’re going to end up waking up earlier. And the great thing about waking up earlier is that everybody else in your household is asleep. So, it’s really quiet and personally I get a lot more done when it’s like so quiet. Now, waking up when the Sun rises is a way healthier way to wake up because now, you’re in sync with nature.
Okay. So now that I got that out of the way, my next tip is getting the little humans out of your bed Mama because that is a big, big thing. And it wasn’t too long ago when Bobby my son was sleeping in my bed. He slept in my bed till 7 years old. Okay, and he’s 9 now. So, it was not too long ago. Now my daughter on the other hand Gabriella slept in her own bed from the age of six-month-old and she’s 12 now. So, never had a problem with her. So, what did I do to end up finally getting him to sleep in his own bed? I ended up having a conversation that was simple enough to resonate with a seven-year-old. I told him that Mommy needs to feel good. And that would only happen if he slept in his own bed. And as simple as that sounded it worked because what does he care about? He cares about his mother feeling good. So, it’s been two years now that I had that conversation with him. And so, it’s been two years of beautiful restful sleep because I don’t have to worry about a leg landing on my face or having to sleep on the edge of the bed so that he sleeps comfortably while I suffer. And when he started sleeping in his own bed. I showed him how excited I was by rewarding him with little incentives, just like I did when I was potty training him. Same concept and Bobby love surprises. So, I’d surprise him was like little gifts that I knew would excite him and I wrap them up just to make it extra fun for him. And it was great motivation for him to keep doing what he was doing cuz he knew that he was doing something right. And so that’s really what worked for me personally.
So, how’s it going for you? Now you may or may not be dealing with this specific issue. Maybe your kids are bit older or maybe they’re not and they’re already, you know sleeping in their bed and have no issues with them. Maybe you’re just having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. So, I have tips for you in that regard that have dramatically improved my own sleep because you know one problem that I had was that once Bobby was finally sleeping in his own bed, I suddenly developed insomnia. So as badly as I wanted to sleep, I couldn’t! Like I find myself waking up in the middle of the night tossing and turning. Like I just couldn’t fall asleep or stay asleep. I just want to give you the outline of some of the things that I started doing and I continue to do until today.
Now, the main thing is just having a ritual before bed. So, the first thing that I do every single night is I limit technology before bed and this is massive. Why? Because just like a computer needs to wind down, the brain needs to wind down too. Because our brain is processing way more information than a generation ago. We’re constantly bombarded with emails, with texts, social media and our minds are put into overdrive. So, avoiding, you know using the computer or your cell 2 to 3 hours before bed will help you big time. So that means not doing any work before you go to bed too if you work from home. Now the other reason why you don’t want to stare at a screen before bed is because of the blue light. This alone can keep you awake because it reduces melatonin secretion and melatonin is needed to have deep quality sleep. So put your phone away. What I do is I put it in a completely different room and I put it on airplane mode so that I’m not distracted and that way I feel present with my family and you know, there’s no distractions there. And the other thing also sorry, I forgot to mention is that you don’t want to keep your phone or computer next to your bed or in your room just because the Wi-Fi radiation. Okay, so that is toxic and preferably you want to keep it in a different room.
Now the next thing that I do is I take a bath. Okay, this is one of my favorite things to do to unwind. It lowers the stress hormone cortisol. And what I’ll do is I’ll just you know, I’ll diffuse some essential oils, maybe some lavender or some frankincense and I’ll add some Epsom salts into the bath and I like my water hot and I’ll just relax in there for 10 to 15 minutes. And when I’m done with that, I am so ready to go to sleep. And yeah, so that’s yeah, that’s something that I definitely do every night. But if you find that you can’t do this because you don’t have enough time. Maybe you know, you have your little ones and you know, you just don’t have that time. If you have only 5 minutes to yourself and just take a quick shower, right either one will give you that relaxation that you need just before bed.
And the next thing that I do is I grab my journal and I do a brain dump. Okay? Because I don’t know about you, but I always have a million thoughts and ideas going through my mind just before I go to sleep. So instead of having it on my mind I’ll you know, jot everything down on paper and that way I could just think about it the next day instead of, you know, trying to fall asleep with everything on my mind.
Now the next thing is massive, okay made a huge difference in my life where I sleep was concerned and its sleeping in a dark room Okay? I used to sleep in a room where my room is right in front of a light post and that light with stream right in through the curtains. And I just I couldn’t sleep. Now since then I actually moved into a new home and I have new shutters and its literally it blocks all the light out. its pitch black. Like I can’t even see anything in front of me when I switch the light off like it’s that dark. So, this has worked wonders for my sleep. So, if you can invest in, you know dark curtains that block out all the light, it will help you big time, or if you want to just keep things simple. You can just throw on a sleep mask.
And then the last thing that I want to talk about is supplements. Okay. I have magnesium a couple hours before I go to bed. This helps to relax my nervous system. It just gives me a better night sleep and another great supplement is melatonin. Just make sure that whatever you’re choosing that it’s a good quality brand. Otherwise, it’s not really worth it. So that’s it, guys. You know, it’s funny because when they reflect back in the day when I was at the height of my career, I would hear top industry leaders saying things like how do you know you can sleep when you’re dead and I remember this because I took it to heart. Like I was hustling like there was no tomorrow and I work myself to the bone and if I deprived myself of sleep, I didn’t think twice about how this could be harming me. So, the main message is this take care of your body and your body will take care of you.
