Lost your sleep pattern?

Today I am going to answer a question that was asked on Instagram by Susanne Braam. 

Back To Susanne Braam’s question, which was 

“what do you do if you have a few nights of disrupted sleep and you can't find back into your sleep patterns?”

I see that happen with a lot of people, who either have health issues or who were in a crisis or people, who had a baby, where you had lots of sleepless nights, so it might not just be a couple, but actually a few months or years, and it's really difficult to find your way back.

There are two to three things that I really like doing and they are a mix of psychological and physiological help; because as you know, sleep is not just one or the other, but it's a combination of two, which brings me to my first point. 

Point #1: Sleep is complex! Sleep is fickle. For some of us, it's more complicated than others. It depends on your genes. It depends on whether you are sympathetic or parasympathetic; meaning whether you are more chilled or whether you just become naturally more anxious.  So really the way your hormones translate and adapt and therefore it's really individual. 

Be gentle with yourself and when you are implementing the next two tips, do not expect a miracle straightaway; but really be patient, be gentle and do trust that your body knows what it's supposed to do and that there's always help to help you get there.

Point #2:I love a good sleep routine and it helps psychologically to get the brain to physiologically wind down and get ready for sleep. Sleep is not an on & off switch. It's like shifting down gears and if you had a busy day, then it's important that you prep.I find that if your sleep patterns are disrupted, then a really good sleep routine can help you to get back into that pattern that you know and that is right for you.

When I talk about a sleep routine, it means doing the same steps in the same order every day before you go to bed. So for me, it's setting a timer an hour before I go to bed so that I get everything done and then I have three to four steps that I do every night before going to bed, including brushing teeth, getting rid of makeup, putting my clothes in the closet and looking a little bit at what am I gonna wear tomorrow and what kind of jewelry am I going to wear. Then it's picking up my book and reading a couple of chapters. That's basically it. I get ready to go to bed and switch off the lights.

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Those steps have to be, if you really want to get your sleep pattern back, the same. If you have step one, step two, step three, you would keep that chronological order. You won’t do step three, step one, step two, or step two, step three, step one. No, you really, really train your brain and it turns into autopilot.

It's like when you're driving your car and you don't know how you got from point A to B, it's your brain taking over. And here it's the same thing.

It's like with babies, really. They connect the routine leading to sleep. That can be super, super helpful. 

Point #3: You know that I'm not the biggest believer or supporter of melatonin, but I think it can really help in this case. Having a disrupted sleep pattern can also have to do with your biological clock and melatonin is just a little trigger to help your biological clock understand that it's time to go to sleep. Especially now during summer time, where it's bright outside, taking melatonin can help. Despite the longer days, your body will know that it's time to go to bed. 

In winter, when it’s dark in the morning, hitting your eyes with and LUX light (UV light), will help your body realize that it's morning. The LUX light will arrange the biological clock.

So summer, melatonin - Winter, UV light. 

Super, super helpful!!

Those are the things I would.  Very quick tips, recommend to try out when you have a disrupted sleep pattern. If you feel that it's more than that, that you're totally stuck, that your sleep is completely out of the window, then do get in touch. I'd love to help!

Wishing you a peaceful sleep and I'll talk to you again next week!

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