Is Your Sleeping Environment Ideal for Your Health
Although we all know the body requires sleep to function, we all have different ideas on what we consider to be the right number of hours required. Regardless of the length, some people experience poor sleep, insufficient sleep, broken sleep, or not getting enough leaving them feeling unrefreshed when waking.
Let’s look at your environment where you sleep. Does it follow all or any of the list below to ensure you get the best night’s sleep.
Dim lighting
Our body requires the level of melatonin to be right to allow for it to switch off. Switching off bright lights of all colours, making your room dimly lit. Melatonin regulates our sleep and wake response within our body. When your eyes sense light this can cause melatonin to shut down. Ensure your room is dark or dimly lit to wake feeling refreshed.
Making your Bedroom a Sanctuary
Have you walked into a bedroom where there is clutter, clothing spread here and there, piles of books, equipment that belongs in another room but has managed to find its home in the bedroom? Your room should be a sanctuary for sleep, a place that feels soft and sensual. Bed linen that is cosy, a great pillow and no clutter. Perhaps a plant for purifying the air if the ventilation is poor. Plants are good at absorbing and trapping toxins and releasing oxygen. Make your bedroom and the air you breathe cleaner.
Better Breathing, Better Sleep
Do you or is someone in your house a snore? Do you yawn a lot for no reason, or can be heard sighing out loud? This can be due to poor breathing habits. Your diaphragm is your breathing muscle, not your chest, nor other muscles around the area. Diaphragmatic breathing benefits sleep, by using only your nasal passages to inhale and exhale. If your breath is too big you will lose too much carbon dioxide. The role of carbon dioxide in sleep is to relax the smooth muscle in your body. This suppresses adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormones, switching your body into the parasympathetic response, complete calm.
Change the Temperature
Researchers have found that fluctuations in internal body temperature regulate the body’s circadian rhythm. This is a 24-hour cycle that controls metabolism, bodily functions and sleep. Small changes within the body temperature can send signals to the clocks in our bodies, controlling heat production and loss.
Although lowering your body temperature can help with sleep, having cold hands and feet can cause restlessness. A warm shower or bath before bed can induce sleep, as it lowers the core temperature of the body, taking a shower 90 minutes before bed helps with falling asleep quickly, by lowering the body’s core temperature, this signals the body that it is time for sleep.
Acupuncture and Acupressure for Insomnia
There are many acupuncture points to alleviate insomnia. Using both acupuncture and acupressure calm the whole body allowing you to sink into a restful state. Reset your body clock with an acupuncture session.
Melinda Webb
B.HSc Traditional Chinese Medicine UTSAcupuncturist | Pregnancy & Birth Coach | Calmbirth Practitioner | Doula
