Prioritizing Your Rest

Day 9 coming in hot to remind you that the most healing thing you can do for your body is to get proper rest 💥

Your body should begin to wake up when the sun rises and get sleepy when it goes down. That circadian rhythm that we talked about on day 4 when we talked about blue light, is a huge tool you can use to know whether or not your body is functioning optimally.

There was a time when I would be awake until 1am every night simply because I couldn't fall asleep and then I could barely get out of bed before 11 every day. It was a running joke with my family that I was the queen of sleep but the reality was I had messed up my hormones so bad that my adrenals were shot and my body was out of whack to the max. It's not normal to get a surge of cortisol late at night that keeps you awake and then struggle so much to wake up in the morning that half your day is wasted. That's a sign something is off.

It was a slow rebuild for me to do this. I had to drop the funny "I'm not a morning person" identity and learn to transition into earlier wake ups and earlier bedtimes. Because my body desperately needed the rest during the right times in order to heal. Sleep deprivation is categorized as anything less than 8 hours a night. My norm was about 6 horribly broken up, restless hours of sleep. From the time I was a young child, sleeping sound was not a thing for me. Being chronically under rested leads to hormonal irregularities, metabolic issues, and lowered immune function.

Here's how I started reprogramming my body and prioritizing my sleep:

▫️Turned off the blue light at night. We've talked a lot about this already but keeping my cortisol naturally low during this time allowed me to wind down properly.

▫️Making my room a place that I felt relaxed and comfortable.

▫️Started focusing on getting into bed between 9-10pm. Aiming to be asleep by 10.

▫️Working through trauma that I had that occurred during night time.

▫️Prioritizing my night time routines just as much as my day time. I love having tea, reading, taking a bath with magnesium flakes and doing my skin care routine at night.

▫️Watching the sunset as much as possible triggers my body into realizing what time of day it is.

▫️Not going back to sleep a hundred times after I first wake up. When my body naturally wakes up any time after 5 I try to stay awake, even if that's a slow start.

▫️Not getting into heated discussions before bed.

I also stopped drinking caffeine.All of it. Cold turkey.

Oh and also sleep supplements. I take none.

I'm not saying you should or need to cut either of those cold turkey but it makes a tremendous difference for me to not stimulate my body in either direction and to naturally reset myself in a way that allows me to find my body's natural rhythm.

Also, stop the sleep shame. Claiming to need little to no sleep is not something to brag about and it doesn't make one person a superhero and another a lazy potato for needing more. Sleep is our body's best time to rejuvenate itself. That's SO important!

Today's Task: Incorporate one new way to prioritize your rest. Clean and organize your sleeping space, turn off electronics easier, get to bed earlier. Something that allows your body more down time going into the weekend!

xoxo

Allissa

I'd love to hold space for your story if you're feeling called to share. The more awareness we can bring to this issue the more we can use this community to support one another. Send to my inbox or tag me

@balanced_body_restorative on IG or Allissa Lakatos on FB!