Harmonisation
“Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.”
Thomas Dekker
Importance of Sleep
Everybody needs ‘down time’; a break from the daily stresses and strains of life and time to regroup and build strength. Your cells are no exception. In today’s world, with so much stimulating entertainment right at our fingertips, even when we’re in bed – in the form of smartphones and tablets, many people are forgoing sleep (i.e. true restorative body-down-time) in favour of Social Media, watching films or surfing the internet. However, although this practice may be considered a sign of a enjoyable, social living, it may also be having a negative effect on the individual’s physical health and wellbeing by delaying the onset of restorative sleep and disrupting sleep cycles.
It’s estimated that between 10% and 30% of adults experience insomnia at some point in their lives. Although there are different definitions, this generally means difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep throughout the night and/or waking unrefreshed and tired. Various studies have been carried out exploring the effects of disrupted or reduced sleep and it’s been shown that less-than-optimal-sleep can negatively impact our nervous system; leading to cognitive problems such as poor memory, depression, increased risk of accidents and our immune system (potentially increasing symptoms of inflammation and pain). In addition, sleep deprivation has been linked to increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Do you ever experience:
Waking up feeling tired or achy?
Excessive daytime fatigue?
Feeling you’re in a ‘boom bust’ cycle of energy?
Waking often during the night (for whatever reason)?
Finding it hard to get to sleep at night?
Are you fed up of how ‘unpredictable’ your symptoms or health seem?
If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to two or more of the questions above, you may well benefit from some assistance in optimising and maximising your nightly sleep and harmonising your nervous system. Read below for some ideas…
Call today for your FREE no-obligation discovery call, to find out if Optimum Health Jigsaw Coaching could change your health – and life for the better!
Autonomic Balancing…
In order to achieve better sleep and add to the holistic healing and movement towards optimum health, a big focus is placed on shifting the body more into a state of Parasympathetic Activation rather than Sympathetic Activation. For several reasons, many people in chronic low energy states, diagnosed with chronic conditions such as M.E. / CFS, Fibromyalgia and many others, are existing in a ‘chronic stress state’, which involves overactivation of the Sympathetic Nervous System – this is the part of the Autonomic (automatic) nervous system responsible for the ‘fight or flight’ response – which is only ever meant to be used sparingly, in acute situations! By working through techniques and implementations in the HARMONISATION Jigsaw Piece, we encourage the body to shift more into the Parasympathetic State – ‘Rest and Digest’, rather than ‘Fight or Flight’. This is the state in which the body relaxes, heals, focuses on fully digesting food, repairing cells, detoxifying the body and many other essential processes which stop working properly when continually in the Sympathetic State…
Other ways to work on your HARMONISATION Jigsaw Piece and start to maximise and optimise your sleep:
Reduce Blue (and Green!) Light:
Although it can be hard in the modern world, try and avoid interactive or stimulating ‘screen-time’ for 60-90 minutes before bed. This starts to calm down the brain and also helps to avoid night time exposure to the blue and green light emitted by electronics, which has been shown to disrupt sleep by inhibiting secretion of melatonin, our sleep hormone. Consider wearing ‘blue and green light blocking glasses’ if you do have to view a screen in the evening.
Vagus Nerve Stimulation:
One natural solution to balance the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is through vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body, running from the brainstem to the abdomen, and plays a critical role in regulating the ANS. When the vagus nerve is stimulated, usually the parasympathetic nervous system effects are enhanced; leading to greater calm, detoxification and healing. Some methods of vagus stimulation include deep, slow breathing, massage of the mastoid process (bone behind the ear) and laughing!
Binaural Beats:
Binaural Beats take the relaxing, uplifting effects of music a step further! Did you know that you can alter your brainwaves (and thereby your mental and emotional state) simply by listening to two different sound frequencies via headphones?
Your brain tries to make sense of the two different frequencies by generating a third ‘binaural beat’, which your brainwaves then adapt to! It’s a phenomenon called Frequency Following Response – and it can be a really useful addition to your healing toolkit! Various apps provide specific frequencies to use and Youtube has lots of free binaural beat audios now, too.
Check your mattress:
Make sure your mattress and pillow are comfortable. Check your mattress for signs of wear at least twice a year and replace it as soon as possible if it is too hard, too soft or too lumpy or bumpy.
Pacing Heroism…
When it comes to recovery from chronic illness, sleep and its quality (or lack of) becomes even more important. Although often overlooked in conventional management programmes, when working with The Optimum Health Jigsaw for Recovery, the HARMONISATION Jigsaw Piece needs to be focused on in great depth. Especially since ‘Harmonisation’ does not simply address the restorative sleep needs of the cells, but also the need for appropriate ‘pacing’ in terms of managing activity levels as appropriate to the state of the individual’s cells. (we call it ‘Pacing Heroism’ since many people don’t understand the strength of character and determination and persistence required to say ‘no’ after a lifetime of saying ‘yes’!)
Call today for your FREE no-obligation discovery call, to find out if Optimum Health Jigsaw Coaching could change your health – and life for the better!
Check out the other pieces of The Optimum Health Jigsaw by clicking below.
Oxygenation
Hydration
Detoxification
Nutrition
Mobilisation
Connection
