PILLAR 3. A Good sleep routine:
Currently in the modern world getting good quality sleep seems to a big problem for people from all walks of life why?
Firstly, we have dismissed our evolutionary past and believe our bodies can survive in this new modern world of bright lights, loud noises, stress, being constantly on the go and of course endless screen times. If you look back to caveman/cavewomen times the only light they had on past sunset was an open fire.
Sleep is essential for the body to recharge its batteries and allow the body to rest, digest and repair.
Quality sleep is vital as it helps to build and to grow muscle tissue, increase appetite, increase energy levels, decrease brain fog, decrease mood swings, decrease irritability, and will improve your overall quality of life.
Sleep is also one of the 4 main pillars in M.E/CFS recovery
Sleep is a vital part in aiding M.E/CFS recovery. Without sufficient sleep, it is very hard to progress your recovery.
Whilst dealing with M.E/CFS, sleep is usually disturbed. During the first year or so when unwell with M.E/CFS people normally sleep for 12-15 hours a day, this however can be reversed after 2-3 years with the illness. Like many people with M.E/CFS, At one stage during the illness I suffered from Insomnia (a common M.E/CFS symptom of being wired and tired). I was in a wound up – stressed out hyper-vigilant state with a million things on my mind.
To address this, I set up a structured sleep routine and sticking to it over a long period of time.
Before bed, I did deep breathing and muscle relaxation, as well as writing down worries and letting them go in my journal. Relaxing music, turning off my phone and screens 1-2 hour before bed, also helped overcome this.
If Insomnia with M.E/CFS gets really bad for you as it did for me at one stage, you might need to use sleeping tablets for a period of time. It’s better to get some sleep than no sleep!
Some other things I used to help my sleep included:
1. If I was tired during the day with M.E/CFS I would only nap for 15 minutes during the early afternoon, sleeping for longer would disrupt my night-time sleep.
2. Sleep consistently between 10pm – 7am
3. The white noise machine generates soothing white noise and masks unwanted sounds to create a sense of calm and relaxation. The white noise works by masking other noises such as traffic, noisy neighbours or people so that your brain doesn’t focus on them and is able to relax and go to sleep. You can also play white noise through apps like Spotify or YouTube.
4. Likewise, quality ear plugs from ‘Alpine hearing protection’ work in tandem with the white noise machine, blocking any outside noise.
5. Blue blocker glasses: Which help block out blue light which is artificially found in devices such as your smart phone, computer screen or even light bulbs. The glasses filter down blue light and eliminate its glare which reduces digital eyestrain, headaches and stress levels, helps you sleep better, as well as keeping your mind and eyes feeling refreshed.
6. Sleeping Masks: to block out any interfering distracting light when you go to sleep.
7. Meditate going to sleep focusing on something simple like the blue sky, don’t go to sleep focusing on thoughts about what happened during the day or what’s happening tomorrow,
With broken sleep DON’T wake up in middle of night checking your phone or start thinking and making plans instead do this meditation technique to fall back to sleep.
8. Using Magnesium, Melatonin, CBD, Valerine Forte as a sleeping aid supplement or use medication if sleep is really bad.
9. Throughout the daytime dont be obsessive about sleep, (just be mindful of sleep). If you have a bad night’s sleep or have nightmares, you need to let it go and make peace and be kind to this; having anger or frustrations to your bad nights sleep gets you nowhere.
10. Have a good quality pillow and mattress.
11. Your Sleep will also improve as you begin to calm down your nervous system and slowly move out of flight vs fight or panic mode.