Taking care of yourself also means taking care of your sleep
Elodie Abadie • 13 septembre 2023
Peaceful sleep thanks to yoga
Insomnia, restless nights, stress and fatigue are part of your daily life?
I have a 5-year-old daughter, so I go to bed quite early and it often takes me a good hour to get to sleep.
Why is that? I overthink!
About what? Current instability, countries at war, my business, my family..... All these factors affect my quality of sleep. It simply affects my mood and both my physical and intellectual capacities at the moment, but in the long run, consequences can be dangerous for my health (cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure....).
We spend around a third of our time sleeping. Sleep is essential and necessary, so it's important to understand how to manage it.
Yes, it's important to go to bed with happy, constructive thoughts, because the subconscious mind keeps repeating your last thoughts. If you worry while you sleep, you'll still feel tired when you wake up.
So for the past month, I've been doing a bedtime routine.
To rebalance my body after a busy day, I perform a series of yoga poses to relax and soothe my racing thoughts.
And I promise you, it's possible to get a good night's sleep thanks to yoga.
Yoga will help you release the accumulated stress of the day and promote relaxation.
Here's a plan to help you change your routine and regulate your sleep issues.
Would you like to have sweet dreams? Here's how.
1 => Before taking your shower, I invite you to perform this little yoga
dance choreography,
which will help you disconnect, let go and release all the tensions of the day. Click here to try it out.
The further along you get in the week, the more enjoyable it will be, as you'll know it by heart. The idea is to be able to practice it every evening with the music of your choice, the one that speaks to you, the one you like.
2 => Take a hot shower to relax your body. (Or a bath if you have a bathtub) If you have time, you can of course add candles, incense, essential oils ... I know that such an intense routine is complicated to implement on a daily basis, especially if you have husband and children waiting to have dinner. So a hot shower will do the trick. Use a scented, relaxing shower gel.
3 =>
Eat at the right times and the right things. Ideally at least 1h30 before bedtime. Avoid stimulants such as coffee, tea and rapid sugars (sweets, sweet desserts...).
Instead, choose pasta (not overcooked), rice, wholemeal bread, lentils and chickpeas ....
4 => Here's a little
meditation
that may also help you fall asleep.
The brain is the main troublemaker of your nights. It leads us to ruminate, carrying us away in thoughts that go round and round in our heads. It's important to re-center ourselves to calm these thoughts and focus our attention on present sensations.
Meditation for sleep, to be found on the studio in guided meditation audio format, click here.
Let's imagine that thoughts are like birds in the sky. Lie on your back. For a few minutes, feel the sensations of your body breathing, the air coming in and going out. Your muscles contracting and relaxing. Observe the flow of air through your lungs. As you breathe, bring your attention to the thoughts and emotions that are flowing through you at that moment. The images, words and sounds in your mind. Watch them appear and disappear. Thoughts are like birds in the sky, fluttering in the wind. Watch them transform. If you notice that your mind has flown away with a thought or rumination, quietly bring your attention back to your breath. Breathing is like the wind that blows the clouds away from your mind.
Understanding sleep:
Sleep is characterized by periods of :
- decreased motor activity
- increased sensory response thresholds
- easier memorization
- discontinuity of mental activity
In the brain, during slow-wave sleep, activity slows down more and more as sleep deepens.
The same applies to the body, with a progressive reduction in the body's main basic functions: pulse and breathing slow down, blood pressure, muscle tone and body temperature drop.
There are two types of sleep: slow wave and REM.
What happens to the body?
In slow-wave sleep, neuro-vegetative functions gradually slow down as sleep deepens and brain activity slows.
In REM sleep, muscle tone disappears completely.
The hypnogram shows the sequence of a night's sleep.
Why do we need sleep?
Sleep deprivation affects our ability to learn, memorize and adapt to new circumstances. It also plays a key role in daytime well-being.
Another function of sleep could be to put the body to rest, or at least reduce its energy consumption and rebuild metabolic energy stocks (glycogen in the liver). Other systems benefit from this "rest": cardiovascular systems, for instance.
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