HH342: Stress Causes Sleep Issues

Melissa Deally: 00:00:00

Welcome back to another episode of health acts as I continue talking about how stress can negatively impact very various aspects of your health and life, and one of them that you are probably aware of, however you may not realize the impact is how stress impacts your sleep, and the more stressed out we are, the harder it is to fall asleep if we have a racing mind. Or we might fall asleep and then wake up in the middle of the night to that racing mind and not be able to get back to sleep. Or we simply wake up in the wee hours of the morning and then that's it, and we're only getting, you know, four or five hours of sleep, and in the last session, I talked about how stress negatively impacts our gut. Well, when we're not getting enough sleep, that actually starts to break down the good bacteria in our gut, and so that has a further negative effect on our gut health, as well as the fact that when we're sleep deprived, we are low on energy, and when we're low on energy, our brain is begging us for energy, and that's when we will often reach for sugary snacks, something quick in order to give us that quick boost in energy. And over the course of time, that actually has us eating more calories than we would if we were sleeping the right amount, and getting our energy from our sleep and so that, over time, leads to weight gain. The other thing that I want to share with you in regards to this is what you can do about it, because what you may not realize is that the last thing that you feed to your unconscious mind before you fall asleep is what it will work on all night long. So if you're feeding it stressful thoughts, if you've watched the nightly news, and that's created stress, if you've been watching some, you know, action movie, all of that is what your unconscious mind is going to work on all night long. And that's stressful and that can keep you awake or wake you up. So what you want to do before you go to sleep is give your unconscious mind something relaxing to work on, something that is positive for it to be working on all night long. And so even if you've watched the nightly news, even if you've watched some action movie, even if you are feeling stressed out during your day and as you're trying to wind down for bed, a great step that you can take is to write a gratitude journal, and just right before you turn out the light to Go to sleep, just note down things that you're grateful for in your day. We all have things that we can be grateful for. We're not necessarily used to looking for them, because our brain is wired to have us look for danger in order to keep us safe, and so that's what we're wired to look for. And so you have to choose to start looking for that gratitude in your day. And the more you do that, the more you will notice, because our reticular activation system starts focusing on the positives, and you will find things you can be grateful for each and every day. Just start out with trying to write down three things. And then as you build this habit, you'll find that you'll be able to fill a page in your journal of things that you're grateful for each and every day. So this is how I love to wind down my night every night is just thinking about what I'm grateful for, remembering that moment in my day, feeling that into my body, and letting my unconscious mind sleep on that all night long. And if I happen to wake up in the middle of the night, I just go back to my gratitude and then I drift straight back off to sleep. So happy sleeping and enjoy your gratitude journal. It is a powerful way to improve your sleep and improve how you feel as you go through each and every day.