Sleep is Nourishment

14th May, 2009 - Posted by Maude -

“You can eat all the vegetables you want, drink all the infusions you want, but if you haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a while you’re just not going to feel VIBRANT. Get some sleep!”

- Bertie, Maude’s sister

If you want the cheapest nourishment on the planet, try getting some sleep. I don’t mean the sleeping until noon one day and walking around feeling guilty and foggy afterwards kind of sleep. I mean the 8 full hours a night, every night for a week kind of sleep. Try that on for size.

But seriously, the optimum amount of sleep for everyone is different. There is no simple rule for determining how much sleep is just right for you. The only way to find out is to experiment - and then listen to your body. Some people would feel groggy on 8 hours a night. Others would feel deprived. What if your body only needs 5 hours? What if it needs 9 hours? Our advice is GIVE YOUR BODY THE SLEEP IT ASKS YOU FOR. Seriously, do it.

Of course, there is a great temptation to tell yourself that sleep is not that important. Or alternately, to tell yourself it’s just not practical - or possible - to get the amount of sleep you need. Quite simply, this is a lie. When we get the optimal amount of sleep for us we are much more efficient, happy, peaceful, productive, and easier to get along with than if we don’t get enough sleep. It just makes everything better.

One of the most important things you can do to lose excess weight is to get adequate sleep every night.

One of the most important things you can do to reduce your stress is to get adequate sleep every night.

One of the most important things you can do to nourish your spirit and your body is to get adequate sleep every night.

Think of a newborn infant. If a baby can’t sleep the right amount, everyone within earshot knows it. The same can often be true for those of us a bit older. For a baby there is nothing more important than getting on the right sleep schedule. The same is true of us as well but we are better at fooling ourselves about this fact. We use our expert thinking about our lives to figure out that something else is causing our difficulties. But we aren’t able to think clearly when we haven’t had enough sleep so how effective can that be?

Our good friend Vanessa recently gave us some words of wisdom. She said that thinking about our problems, even when it can’t possibly help, is so tempting because it feels productive. We agree! Thinking about problems sure is tempting but it hardly ever helps. Nourishing ourselves, body and spirit is often a lot more effective than thinking!

People in self help groups sometimes use the acronym H.A.L.T. which stands for don’t get too

Hungry

Angry

Lonely or

Tired

If you are any of those things, stop and take care of it before you do anything else! Seriously, before you do anything else, take a nap.

If you are upset and out of sorts, if you are chronically worried or fearful, if you wonder if you’re living in the wrong state, eating the wrong food, working the wrong job, or living with the wrong people - get some sleep! Get some good sleep every night for two weeks and your problem will take on a new perspective.

If you really feel you can’t get on a good sleep schedule think of yourself as a cranky child. How would you help that child get to bed? Get a pleasant bedtime routine? Go to bed at the same time every night? Make bed time non-negotiable? Have a cup of chammomile tea or warm milk? If you can do these things for a child you can do them for yourself. Do them every day for two weeks and check in with yourself. How do you feel? Make adjustments if you need them and try again. It just might be the most nourishing thing you can do for yourself.

2 Comments

mitzy

May 28th, 2009 at 10:10 pm    


hear hear! so true! thank you, maude.

KonstantinMiller

July 6th, 2009 at 7:15 pm    


Hello, can you please post some more information on this topic? I would like to read more.

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