Hey, you are not alone... This is a curable condition if you know how to do it.
So far you may have been working hard, partying hard, or perhaps burdened by family responsibilities, thus not having enough time to get your full sleep quote daily.
Our body is a creature of habit.
If you have taught your body (and mind) that sleep time can be postponed, or completely ignored in the quest to live life more fully, you would have pushed the limits of your wakefulness and invested more and more of your time in your worldly pursuits. So your internal body clock is probably totally confused about what you expect of it. So don't blame your sleep or your body. Learn how it works, and harmonise your needs with the needs of your body and mind.
Sleep comes easily to those who regularly go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time. They don't need to struggle to sleep. Or fret about buying the right sleep gadgets, getting the right sleeping pills/supplements prescription, or hiring the right sleep coach. They just go to bed at the usual time and voila within 20 minutes they are in sleepville.
But the others need to learn sleep hygiene, follow the right instructions, and train their body and mind to shut down at the time that they want it to.
This blog post itself was triggered by a call I received from a friend last week. She wanted me to speak to her husband who was having sleep issues and needed help. I discovered that he was 43 years old and he has been postponing sleep right from his college days. As like most high achievers, he too sacrificed sleep time for study, work, play, friends or family. He got his body used to an erratic sleep schedule to accomodate his desire to living life more fully.
I believe there are millions of people like him who discover around the age of 40 that they are not sleeping well and that sleeping pills and aids are not helping them the way they would like it to. They realise that their health, longevity, effectiveness, strength, relationships and career are all getting affected by their poor sleep habits which is slowly and steadily sucking away their life juice and potential to be their best version.
If you relate to this person, this blog post is for you.
Sleep is the most natural thing in the world. It is like your breath. Sleep creeps up on you naturally and without your conscious effort, 3 to 4 hours after sunset, and given the right conditions and your willingness to surrender, it will gather you in her embrace for the next 7 to 8 hours. If you have messed with her natural rhythm, you may find that it is not occuring naturally any more.
But you can correct this. Read on to discover how.
Conditions for natural sleep at night are:
Light, or rather lack of it
Lowered body temperature
Lack of stimulation (devices, sound, rapid movements, etc)
Sleep/wake homeostasis (the longer you are awake, the closer you are to sleep time) and the Circadian biological clock (governed by sunrise and sunset)
Regularity of timing in going to bed and waking up
What this does is:
Lower your cortisol levels (stress hormones)
Start the production of melatonin (sleep hormones)
Helps you to relax, and encourage the onset of your natural sleep
If you would like to learn more about how to sleep naturally, click here
If you are in this age group, it is important to understand that your schedules should not cause problems for you that become irreversible. Our health, longevity, productivity, relationships, and happiness are all dependent on our ability to relax, take a break and recharge ourselves so that we can chug along longer and faster than others who are burning out prematurely.
Prioritise your sleep. This one act of discipline can give you far greater rewards than you ever thought possible.
Wishing you a life that is lived on your terms for the longest possible time.