SERIOUSLY SPEAKING - SLEEP DEPRIVATION

We try to fit everything into our days - and, especially this time of year -our to-do lists seem to expand, while the daylight hours shrink.

Giving up on a few hours of sleep seems like a no-brainer, but over time we can get into habits that deprive us of the rest we need in order to function at our best. 

Find yourself snapping at the people around you?  Feeling nervous and short of patience? 

Sleep deprivation can leave us feeling cranky and out of sorts. 

DANCE WITH IT!   EXPERIENTIAL APPS           

An opportunity to experiment with some fun

ideas...

LEARN TO BLOCK OUT THE NOISE!

It's easy to let the days' activities bleed into the night time hours normally dedicated to sleep.  There are many tricks designed to create boundaries between sleep time and waking time:  we've all heard the following:

Create a quiet zone for sleeping

Soft colors

Muted sounds

For light sensitive individuals watch out for bedtime tv viewing

Have a nightly ritual that delineates the time zones between the active day and sleep

OK  

BUT

What can you do once you turn out the lights and all that clutter starts churning around in your mind?

1)  Breathe.  Create a rhythm of breathing that is soothing to you - make it different from your normal breathing pattern.  Maybe count - in on the count of 3, out to the count of three…

2)  Imagine your bothersome thoughts have a brightness and contrast - they start out as a dark black - see if you can 'grey them down' gently fading them to the point they disappear.

3)  Put the intruders into a box, close the lid tightly, and then begin spinning it away from you and into the stratosphere until it all disappears.

4)  Resize your thoughts:  they start out big, taking up a lot of your mind-space… Downsize them until they disappear.

5)  Compress the intrusive thoughts until they are flatter than a pancake - or until you laugh yourself to sleep!

Obviously, the idea of all of the above is to empower yourself to take back the night…

Your sleeping time belongs to you and you deserve to control what happens!

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