What to Do When You Have Trouble Sleeping

Hello, friends!

I hope your days are filled with sunshine, friends and family, good food, flowers and fun. I also hope they are followed with nights of good sleep. What do you do when you can’t sleep?

There are things you can do to improve your sleep besides taking drugs. Here are some tips that have been helpful for me.

Sleep. It is VITAL. I am a little surprised just how important a bed with a comfy mattress and the right pillow in a room at the right temperature with very little LIGHT has become for me. I’m kind of persnickety these days.

Pullout sofa beds, blow-up mattresses and floors just don’t really do it for me anymore. But, neither does McDonalds, highly processed food and Diet Pepsi (even though I still sometimes crave a ginormous Polar Pop from our local Circle K.)

Sidebar: Trust me. I lived pretty much my whole life not really giving a care about how much sleep I got or how I fed my body, really. A foods and nutrition major in college, I KNEW the facts, but still gave in to my sugar addiction way too often.

I’ve even taken pride in being able to operate on very little sleep. Dumb. Isn’t it amazing all the forms pride can take?

If you are in that boat, no judgment from me.  I’m just trying to take better care of myself now, and bet that you are, too.

Good Sleep as Important as Good Food

Do you consider getting good sleep as important to living your best life as eating nutritious food? I didn’t used to, but my opinion of sleep has drastically changed.  Now, I want to maximize my sleep and get the most benefits from those hours.

What goes on inside our body while we sleep? Nobody knows everything that occurs, but we do know lots of things are happening,  including,

Many biological processes:

• The brain stores new information and gets rid of toxic waste.
• Nerve cells communicate and reorganize, which supports healthy brain function.
• The body repairs cells, restores energy, and releases molecules like hormones and proteins. (These info is from here.)

Sleep or the lack of it also affects mental health-we can probably all attest to that!

Traditional Chinese medicine describes different organ systems being repaired at different times of the night. I have no idea if this is true, but God created our bodies to require sleep, so we know it is essential, and it is interesting to discover how different cultures approach the basics of life.

No doubt about it, sleep is IMPORTANT to health. And sleeping pills and other prescription sleep aids are a big fat NO for me. Have you looked at the list of side effects? It is LONG and includes mental slowing and memory problems. No thank you.

Menopause messed my sleep all up, so when I discovered that Young Living Lavender essential oil diffused and applied topically made a huge difference in my sleep patterns, I was so thankful. Since my happy encounter with Lavender, I’ve learned that my body requires a variety of sleepy oils, so I rotate them.

My favorites for diffusing and topical application at night are…. Lavender and Cedarwood together in the diffuser and the Tranquil roller applied topically. Rotating other favorites also works for me. See #4. If I travel and suffer from jetlag, I use Sleepessence, a product that is taken internally and contains a combo of sleep oils.  Also, this is the product I suggest when I’m sharing with someone who has deeply entrenched poor sleep habits.

When My Good Sleep Went Bye-Bye

After years of sleeping well, the pandemic really messed up my sleep again. I found myself reverting back to my peri-menopausal sleep problems. Anyone else do this during the lockdown?

My pattern became:

Fall asleep. Wake up at 2. Grab my phone. Start scrolling all the bad news. Begin worrying myself sick about the future. Try to pray but unable to concentrate. Worry. Surrender. Get mad. Worry. Surrender. Get mad. Fall asleep again right before it was time to get up.

Spend the next day just not my best self which led to grabbing sugary treats, over-eating carbs, grouchiness and other less than stellar habits. All because of not enough sleep!

Tips That Work for Me….

I had to really sweet boss myself to get control of the situation. Here is what is working for me:

One…..

Go to bed early. I am a morning person, so I get up EARLY. This requires going to bed early, embarrassingly early most nights.

Two….

Be careful what media I consume in the evenings. Brad and I like to watch a comedy or Heartland or some other calm show in the evening. I try to stay off my phone.

Three…

Have a bedtime routine. Take my probiotic. (I like Life 9.) Start the dishwasher. Brush my teeth and do my skin care routine. (Admittedly, I often find that I do NOT want to do this skin care routine, but I’m making myself until it becomes a habit.)

Four…

Fill my diffuser. (Tonight, I will use Peace and Calming and Cedarwood in the diffuser with Tranquil rolled on my neck.)

Five…

Read something inspirational/light.

Six….

Thank God for his blessings. I try to boss my brain into NOT going to my list of worries and troubles. Bringing all that to Him during the daylight hours works better for my heart.

Seven…

Sing songs to Him. Did you learn a bunch of worship songs as a kid? Those little choruses come to my mind very readily these days, so I sing in my head.

Eight…

If I do wake up in the night, I have to do more brain bossing. No more scrolling like before. Now, I try to recite scripture, take big inhales and exhales. If that doesn’t do the trick, I listen to a Renovare podcast, or one about France. They are calm and educational and don’t start me down spirals of “what if”. Those familiar voices put me right to sleep.

Nine…

I also pray that I will get a good night’s sleep or if I wake up, I ask God to help me go right back to sleep. Do I think God cares about my sleep? You betcha! I believe He cares about EVERYTHING.

What are your tricks for getting a good night’s sleep?

Ready to give essential oils a try? I put my favorite sleep products in a little bundle for you. Click Nighty Night Bundle

I’m so thankful for my oils and the ways they continue to help our family. I’d love to help you get started. Read about how I broke up with Claritin D here.

Want to join me in memorizing scripture so you can recite it in the wake-up hours? I’m working on Psalm 1 right now.

Blessed is the man

who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

or stand in the way of sinners,

or sit in the seat of mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord

and on His law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water

which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers.

Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

Let’s meditate on TRUTH, not our worries.

Much love and wishes for nights and nights of great restorative sleep for all of us! Your body, mind, and spirit will thank you.