How is your Sleep?
Sleep is highly underrated these days. When I ask people how their sleep is, most reply that it is okay. Upon further inquiry I find they are not getting enough hours (between 7-9 is recommended for most people) and they are not waking feeling refreshed. Since most people don’t know what good sleep is, first I’ll define what good sleep isn’t.
You should not:
• wake up frequently at night
• sweat
• have nightmares or otherwise disturbing dreams
• take longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep
• thrash around
• wake up to use the bathroom
In the morning you should feel energized and if sleepiness interferes with or makes it difficult to go about your day, it’s a pretty good indication you need more sleep.
The quality of sleep you are getting is also important. We sleep to live. This is our opportunity to repair the damage we inflict on ourselves daily (some more than others), we consolidate memory, secrete hormones, strengthen our immune system, and lower blood pressure. In the evening our blood is stored in the liver where it is cleaned and purified. If we are awake during this time, we significantly impair our liver’s ability to detoxify our body.
From the Traditional Chinese Medical (TCM) perspective, I have a few additional tips to offer:
• Do not drink alcohol or have a large meal before bed as it disrupts stages 3 and 4 of restorative sleep and leads to tossing and turning.
• Avoid caffeine or stimulating foods several hours before bed.
• Get to sleep before 10 pm. In TCM, the liver is most active cleaning the blood from 11 pm to 1 am. If you are not already asleep, this activity may be too stimulating and keep you awake.
• Exercise earlier in the day to stimulate your adrenals.
If you’re having a difficult time relaxing at night try wiggling your toes back and forth. The tips of the toes are meeting points for the 12 major meridians that connect with all the organs in the body. This subtle movement stimulates the Qi flow throughout the body. A TCM adage, where there is stagnation there is pain, shows how stagnant energy can agitate the person. When I develop a treatment plan focused on improving sleep, I always include points that will move Qi and calm the mind that best suit the individual.