Sleep deprived, No More!

I've had sleeping issues for years. Insomnia, waking up a million times a night. OK, not a million but waking up constantly like every hour or half hour. I had gotten used to it. It was just a normal part of the night not to sleep well, to have night mares. I started thinking a good night's sleep was when I didn't have night mares and I only woke up once every hour. Awesome right? Hah! Some of you can relate. Not getting enough sleep sucks. But when you've been living like that for years, it just becomes a normal part of life. Which is totally lame.

I've tried all sorts of things. Like teas, essential oils, sleep routines, no electronics for an hour before bed, etc. Sometimes I felt down right desperate. Desperate for a decent night's sleep. Especially when its been days of insomnia and when I did sleep it would only be for an hour or two and I would wake up a tons of times during that short period. I talked to my doctar about it and she prescribed me a sleep aide. Luminesta. Have you looked at the possible side effects of that stuff? Holy crap is that scary. But I was desperate, however, I never got to try it. My insurance company, TRICARE, said we needed to try other things first or I would have to pay 100% out of pocket. Yikes! Those pills are freaking expensive. So I said forget it and and suffered on in silence.

Now I've always been a light sleeper. Those of you who have known me before the past 5/6 years are probably thinking. So you're waking up because of noises outside or inside or from the people in one of the adjourning apartments or or or. Yes, since I lost Zeus and some other stuff in my life went to hell. I have been even more of a light sleeper, waking up at every little noise since I don't completely feel safe. But that is a different kind of reason to wake up and my constantly waking up all night long wasn't just because of "things that go bump in the night" and my trust issues.

This was life and it wasn't getting better. I missed the nights of wonderful dreams of fighting bad guys and saving the world. Where when I woke up in the morning I would have to fight to get up, not because I didn't want to face the day but because I wanted to finish the story in my dream. I had places to be and people to save and, heck, when I'm awake my totally awesome super powers no longer exist.

And then, something changed...Two months ago I was scanning through the numerous daily facebook messages for my graduating class at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and I stumbled across a post. One of my classmates had a client who had been struggling with sleep. After talking to the client about all sorts of things relating to sleep he/she found out that the client uses her cell phone for an alarm clock. He/she explained the client about the signals that our cell phones are constantly giving off and how it can affect us. He/She explained all sorts of stuff about why and how but I was no longer paying attention (bad me) I got stuck on the cell phones for an alarm clock thing. Then there was the client testimonial. The client had decided to give it a go. Putting the cell phone on airplane mode at night so she could still use it for an alarm clock. At night, she and her husband would either move anything with a wifi signal out of the bedroom or they would put it on airplane mode for the night. Voila! At the two week check in with my classmate, she told him/her (I don't remember which) about how she and her husband had been sleeping soundly every night and no longer had sleep issues.

Well, what the heck! It was worth a try right? So that night I told my husband about it and explained that I wanted to give it a try. We both use our cell phones for alarm clocks. So before bed we set our alarms and put our phones on airplane mode. OH MY GOD!!! I had the best sleep of my life. The best sleep I've had in years! YEARS!!! It's been two months. I've slept through every night, only waking up occasionally to investigate weird noises (or when Dytie was having stomach issues and was throwing up throughout the night). I've had one night of insomnia ONE! I used Lavender Essential oil on my feet and spent a few minutes meditating and then was able to go to sleep. I've had a couple nights of issues waking up constantly. Both times we figured out that my husband had forgotten to put his phone on airplane mode. I started thinking about things and reading back through my journal and dream journals and was able to pinpoint when my sleep went to hell.  That's right, you guessed it. Everything goes back to when we started sleeping with our cell phones next to the bed at night. It was before we ditched the alarm clock. Hmm...

So you might think this sounds a little hokey. But if you've been having sleep issues I say why not give it a try. I don't have all the facts but you can look up all the reasons why having your cell phone next to the bed at night is bad. You can spend lots of time researching it yourself. Or you could give it a try and see what happens. If you don't want to put your cell phone on airplane mode, or you need to have it on at night for some reason. Move it out of the room. Get an alarm clock. Put your cell phone in the living room (or some other room then the bedroom) and just turn up the volume so you can hear if it goes off at night. There are a million reasons why having a good nights sleep is so important. Heck, there are probably billions of reasons. Your health, your sleep, your life is totally worth giving it a try.

It's May!

It's May. As in the fifth month of the year. Oh my God where did the time go? As with the beginning of each month, I sat down to put together my goals for the month. But this time I started getting depressed. It's the 5th month of the year and I haven't accomplished what I wanted to by now. I started looking at all my monthly and weekly and quarterly goals. Yes, I like lists, and goals and I love the sense of accomplishment from achieving those goals. Of working each day towards a better tomorrow and an awesome future. But as I sat there and saw all the lack of check marks next to my many goals, I started to bum hard. But then, something hit me. Yeah, so I haven't checked off many goals this year, but why not look at all the positive things I have done so far this year. If you look at my yearly goal list, there are some things already checked off. But I've done more then just those things.

As I teach my clients, so I started to do. I started looking at all the positive things I have been doing. All the good. And I started to feel better. So what if I haven't accomplished the big things. I have gotten closer to all of them. I have made a bunch of positive changes one step at a time. Changes I haven't been thinking about because they've become habits. Like eating healthy breakfasts. 5 out of 7 days a week I manage to eat a healthy breakfast. This is a HUGE accomplishment for me. Since in the past I couldn't even say 5 days out of the month I ate any breakfast, let alone a healthy one. But this isn't something I think of much now. It's just something I do. I wake up, take the totally awesome thyroid pill, put together my breakfast smoothie to blend and drink in a few hours and move on with my day. And I change things about my smoothie depending on how I'm feeling that day. Or I even change what I eat. I no longer eat instant oatmeal as the only breakfast I remember to eat later. Why? Because I actually paid attention to my body and realized that every time I eat that stuff it totally drains me. Slows me down, gives me brain fog, takes away all my energy and ability to focus on ANYTHING. I'm more aware of what I eat and when I eat it. I'm making much better choices with my food. I eat better things and I eat in better portion sizes. Eating better makes me feel better. And my life is ruled by feelings. So eating better = feel better = better day = better life.

But the good choices are going beyond just food. I'm spending more time outdoors. Even when the weather isn't awesome (which it totally has been lately) I notice the desire to walk my dogs and spend the evening outside, so I do it.  I'm happier, healthier and I've found the inner peace that I've been searching for. I'm not saying the peace is always there or that its always easy to find, cause there are times when I'm taking deep breaths and counting. Telling myself not to strangle someone who is being astronomically stupid.

I've reached out of my comfort zone and embraced some of the things I used to do years ago. Things I stopped doing as my self confidence dropped. Like talking to people in the grocery line and well, anywhere I happen to be at. I'm not an extroverted person. I like small intimate gatherings and I like spending a lot of time by myself or with my dogs in the middle of no where. But ask any of my friends and you'll find that most of them were people I felt a need to randomly strike up a conversation with. This is something that has happened very few times in the last 5 years. But over the last few months its happening more and more. And when I run into someone and start talking about things, I don't feel the urge to run away as soon as I can get the conversation stopped. I take the time to talk to them, to learn about them, to connect to people. Over the last few months I have met some amazing people and made great connections that will help me, my family, my friends, and my business in the future. I've also embraced that some times it really is not what you know but WHO you know. And I'm getting to know people. Stopping for a smile and a short chat. Brightening their day and in turn they are brightening mine. I'm once again learning to trust my intuition, my inner voice.

I challenge you to take a few minutes, just 10 or 15, and think about the positive things and changes that you've made in your life. Nothing is to small. It's so easy for us to focus on the bad but it takes effort to focus on the good. So put a little effort into thinking about the good things in life. You'll appreciate it in the short and long run.