Sleep Habits

        As a former insomniac, it took me a long time to relearn proper sleep hygiene.  I was so used to burning the candle at both ends, I was blissfully unaware (more like too tired and wired to notice), the effect lack of quality sleep was having on my mind and body.

         It’s still not a perfect practice by any means, especially when there is a weekend session of late night gaming or board games with friends, but my body is trained enough now that when a certain hour strikes, my body gives me cues that I should be getting ready for slumber.  That’s the first step, ESTABLISH A TIME FOR BED.  I mean bed, not sleep.  For me, that is usually between 10 and 10:30 pm, that I’m upstairs, washing my face, brushing my teeth, and getting into bed, prepping my mind and body for sleep.

        Like our work environment, our Kwoon or training room, whatever place, what our environment is like will influence our mind and nervous system.  How cluttered is it.  Is the environment calming or chaotic.  What about devices or a TV in the room?  I admit to doom scrolling, I also admit to falling asleep with the TV on. Heck I can fall asleep to a horror movie.  Someone screaming bloody murder doesn’t deter me.  That ghost that’s haunting you, whatever, I’m under the blankets. Which leads to step 2, TURN OFF YOUR DEVICES! You want to do this at least an hour, if not two, before you want to be sleeping.  The blue light alone messes with your circadian rhythm, and it suppresses melatonin production, the chemical responsible for sleep.  Doom scrolling is a nervous system disruptor, usually sending your body into flight or fight mode.  The other part of your environment and the 3rd step is TEMPERATURE. You want your room cool to sleep in.  Lower body temperatures aids sleep.  Our body’s should naturally lower by .5-1° for sleep, meaning our bedroom should be set at a lower temperature to help with this, usually between 15-19°, preferably. A couple more things on environment: darkness, so think black out curtains or sleep mask to limit light, and if you’re a light sleeper and random sounds disturb you, you can invest in a white noise machine.

          Now I know we are all busy people and we want to squeeze as much time from our day as we humanly can, and sometimes that means a late night workout, or late night dinner/snack.  I know Mondays and Wednesdays were the hardest for me.  I would need a lot of downtime to relax my nervous system after Kung Fu training, and I would normally wait to eat dinner after class, instead of before.  This was hard on my sleep routine, as I was overstimulated and need a good couple of hours to wind down from that, and the late dinner meant that my body was busy digesting instead of preparing for sleep.  Late night workouts are stimulating, activating that nervous system, and late night eating stimulate digestion, and activate the metabolism which in turn raises or body temperature when we want to be lowering it.  So, step 4, TRY NOT TO WORKOUT OR EAT TOO CLOSE TO BEDTIME.  Stretching can be a good way to help relax, IF it’s the right kind of stretching.  A Yin style of stretching where you are holding poses for longer periods of time, and you’re doing fewer poses would help aid sleep better than doing multiple poses/stretches that are more active stretching.  Nota bene, stimulants like caffeine should be reduced, and limited 8 hrs before sleep, and depressants like alcohol should be avoided before bed too, as alcohol will spike metabolism and increase body temperature.

          Establishing a sleep routine is a lot like, well, anything else really.  You have to commit to it daily, and stick with it long enough to see results.  Part of this routine should also include ways to get your mind and body to relax. Step five, CREATE A PRE-SLEEP ROUTINE.  This might look like doing some Yin yoga, a meditation, breathing exercise, reading, or anything else that gets you into relaxation and ready for sleep.  I personally like to read before bed, which sometimes works against me if the book gets really exciting; otherwise I like breath work incorporated into a meditation.  If you’re anxious or a worrier with a laundry list of things on your mind, try journaling or writing them out to get those thoughts out of your head and onto paper to try to get them off your mind.  You can always try certain sleep aids like melatonin (immediately before bed), herbal teas like chamomile or valerian root (not too much liquid before bed though), magnesium as a supplement or spray it on the bottoms of your feet.

             Final note, we talked about lot about what to do at night, but our wake routine is.  Step six, ESTABLISH A WAKE ROUTINE.  It is just as important to set a wake time as it is to set a sleep time.  Along with this, if you can and season dependent, to see that morning light.  Exposing your body to the rising and setting of the sun helps with calibrating our circadian rhythms.  Sweet dreams.