Leave Me Alone! I Just Need to Sleep! How Lack of Sleep Might Be Affecting Our Mood…

Yesterday was one of those days. I am not sure if you get them too but you know those days when everything seems too hard. James and I have been staying at my mom’s house. It is in the country and she bought it about a year and a half ago. It doesn’t have much in it as yet since she still has to move over here permanently. Anyway, we thought we could just get some internet sticks and use the internet that way. I tried to get online yesterday using it and it couldn’t even open my blog page! That kinda started the ball rolling and I just got frustrated with it all. It just felt all too overwhelming and hard. The plan was to get a job here for the summer. So, we bought a bed and a little outdoor table and chairs and were happy to just potter around in the garden, maybe get a little job and I could focus on my blog. With the internet not working, it just threw the whole plan out! How frustrating!

I started to notice that feeling coming up. Overwhelmed, exhausted, stressed and too many unanswered questions floating around in my head! I got grumpy and though James tried to explain to me that it wasn’t that serious and we could find a way to get the internet to work, I just felt defeated, tumbled over and fed up. I walked off and went back to bed. I just wanted to curl up and not face the world for a day. It was all too hard and it was warm and nice to just be in bed and let the day disappear. He is a good man and left me to it. He went out and went shopping, got the local paper and pottered around in the garden.

I spent most of the day in bed. When I woke at about midday, I felt better. I was back to my old self. I was positive again and filled with possibility and hope of what we could do while we were here.

I think I was just tired. Just as simple as that. Anything that required any kind of energy just felt overwhelming and hard. Anything that required me to think and be positive felt exhausting. Do you have this sometimes too?

It is amazing how this one thing can impact us so much. It started to saturate into every avenue of my life. The blog, my healing journey, and everything seemed like too much work and effort. Scary thought, right?

Ironically, a day later, I have found a great solution to being able to blog again—McDonalds has free WIFI! Yes, I know—scary—but I can sit outside without even having to buy anything!

Well, it got me thinking about needing sleep, healing and emotions. See, our serotonin levels are closely related to our feelings of calmness and positivity. When we don’t get enough sleep, they will start to falter and inevitably the spiral begins. Low levels of serotonin have been directly linked to depression.

Over the last week, while staying with my aunt, we have inevitably had quite a few late nights—playing cards, catching up with my cousins and family etc. We have also been eating heaps of foods and I might just add that German foods are not exactly light!

I think that over the week, my body has had more to process and with less than my desired 8 hours of sleep, I have just been getting tired. Thing is, I forgot just how important sleep is in healing the body and how much this affects our moods and our belief in what is possible. I used to suffer from insomnia regularly and waking in the middle of  the night.

Here are some things I have done to alleviate poor sleep over the years:

• Don’t watch television just before wanting to go to sleep. Sit and talk with your partner or have a warm bath with candles. You want to reduce the stimulation going on in your mind. I know it is hard initially because it is a habit to sit in front of the television but if you must… watch something really mundane that doesn’t stimulate your mind or at least calms it down, like a nature show perhaps.
• Make sure your bed is a warm, comfortable and sleep encouraging place. In one place I lived, I actually moved the bed into the lounge as it was simply more comfortable to sleep in! Make sure it is dark as this encourages melatonin production. I love bedspreads and will often spoil myself with fine cotton thread sheets to feel really happy and warm in my bed.
• Get some aromatherapy oils to relax you. I love passionflower or sandalwood. Just put a few drops on your pillow before bed.
• Meditate or do some yoga before going to bed. Again, it is all about calming the mind.
• Think happy thoughts. I sometimes find the only way to stop my mind from analyzing everything else in my life is to create an imaginary place. It is filled with happy things and makes me completely drift away from everything else. Create it so you can revisit it each night. I always imagine I can fly and that I just float around the world.

How is your sleep? Are you sleeping deeply enough, long enough? Do you feel tired often? Overwhelmed? Exhausted with life and everything in it? Perhaps the first step is all about just getting a good night’s sleep (or in my case half a day).