Best Of

Me: *cracks knuckles* aiight, here we go 😜

We've talked about this, Em, but sleep issues have followed me my whole life! As a kid I would go to my parents and say I couldn't sleep and they'd go, "Oh, we know why you can't sleep....you're up walkin' around!" Hilarious 🙄😆 My sleep was the worst my junior year of college, and not due to the schoolwork! I used to be up all night, getting 1-2 hours, just laying in bed desperate for sleep. I'd take benadryl every few hours, melatonin, etc. and nothing would change. I'd cry over it a lot. It's taken quite a few years for me to be able to figure out what makes sleep possible for someone like me, and I feel like I've tried everything under the sun haha so hopefully all my trial and error has taught me something ;) I've mentioned what I'm about to put below on the No Cave November post, but I'll go into slightly more detail here since, y'know, actual sleep post haha

• For sure, far and above anything, a weighted blanket has helped me the most. I actually got interested in weighted blanket for my anxiety, but now I take it anywhere I know I'm going to sleep: home, hotels, nights at Grammy's, etc. Lugging around 15 lbs of blanket will always be worth the extra quality sleep I get. It's not that I sleep longer (though I'm sure sometimes I do!) but that my sleep is so much better. The weight keeps me from thrashing around like a wild animal, it's comforting without being heavy, and in general I feel very...swaddled. I don't know what brand I have as it was a gift, but this one here has been highly recommended to me by veteran users and some versions have a "cooling" factor if you're worried about getting hot. For the record, I don't have a cooling blanket and I need the temp to be like, -20 degrees when I sleep haha but I've never had a problem w getting hot!
• Second most important thing is that I don't use my bed for anything other than sleep. In college, my bed was my dinner table, my watching-TV area, where I had existential crises (haha), etc. I'm fairly certain that was a huge reason I had the kind of trouble I had. These days, I only use my bed for sleep. I didn't think this would have the kind of effect it has had, but when Clint and I get into bed and he wants to chat, I can't because sleep overcomes me so fast. It does work!
• Never underestimate rituals. The more behaviors you can associate with sleep, the better. There's a lotion I use on my hands only before bed, I wear similar type pajamas every night, A white noise machine I only turn on at bedtime, lavender or eucalyptus scents (sometimes essential oils, sometimes pillow mist, sometimes candles) and of course your more common rituals: brushing teeth, washing your face, etc. I'd say my routine takes...30 minutes or so? It really helps ease my brain from the frantic and fast thoughts of the day to the slower, more controlled thoughts of the night. Like you mentioned, bedtime meditation would be a really great asset to any bedtime ritual!
• Lately I've been having issues staying asleep instead of falling asleep, so I've started to track 10 minutes of trying to fall asleep. If I'm not back asleep by then, I get up and go into the living room to read under some soft light for 20 min or so. I get too anxious and stressed by the time I'm wasting not sleeping, so allowing myself a setting away from the bed makes me miss it, and the gentle activity of reading isn't enough to get me wired but it is enough to get me tired. Sometimes instead of reading I do stretches, which I've found is really helpful when I'm having a toss-and-turn night.
• My last resort is always a new place to sleep. When nothing is working, I sleep on the couch. It's not ideal, obviously, but sometimes I get too restless to make the bed work. The change in location can really help!

Love the message here!

I wonder how often we stop at 30 or 31 degrees out of frustration. This popular meme comes to mind =)

Also, sometimes we get so caught up in looking for the visual or easily measurable changes that come at 32 degrees that we forget to notice the other less obvious changes such as cardiovascular health or mood when talking about fitness.