Parents yearn for it and children flee from it.
Sleep.
The very word evokes visions of a delicious drifting away, the gift of sleep a release from the mind's preoccupation with the day's tasks and predicaments.
And yet despite the myriad benefits of sufficient sleep including better health, a clearer mind and increased productivity, the ability to slip seamlessly into slumber eludes so many of us.
One of my favourite anecdotes tells of a teenager who visits his local GP in search of aid in combatting his insomnia.
"Let me hear more about your problem," the kindly doctor inquires.
"Well," admits the youth, "I can fall asleep fine at night and mornings are also pretty okay. However, I am having real trouble in the afternoons."
Joking apart, a Consumer Reports survey of 4,023 American adults demonstrated that a whopping 68 percent struggled with sleep at least once a week.
According to Dr Rafael Pelayo, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a sleep specialist at the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center in Redwood City, California,
"...sleep is really how the brain gets reset for the next day. Sleep restores the brain.”
And it seems that once again it's ladies first, a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovering that close to 20 percent of all women between 40 and 59 years of age reported trouble falling asleep on four or more nights in the week preceding the survey.
If you find it difficult to slow down the racing of your mind at night, or cannot fall asleep easily, you will be able to relate to the absolute frustration experienced by the many people who live with insomnia.
This may be why sleep deprivation has been used as a form of torture since the 15th century although, as many parents will testify, it sometimes seems as though the torture works in reverse.
In fact, I admit to a time when my child replied to my admonishments to go to bed that he was not tired.
"Perhaps, " I retorted in some desperation. "But I am."
“Sleep is something the brain needs,” Dr Pelayo elucidates, further explaining that our brains run on electricity meaning that the chemical energy the brain uses to function has waste products that must be cleaned out.
When does this happen?
The brain flushes out these metabolites during sleep, replenishing the energy the brain uses throughout the day.
“Work eight hours and sleep eight hours and make sure that they are not the same hours.”
This quote from T. Boone Pickens may be more apt than it appears at first glance. Without sufficient sleep and the accompanying chemical process, we are at risk of decreased concentration, increased moodiness and irritability, skewed judgement, less patience, increased impulsivity and difficulty remembering things.
It is difficult enough for the average adult juggling various responsibilities to carve out the requisite number of hours suggested for optimal functioning. However, often once we are finally lying in bed, we can find it difficult to slow down and actually fall asleep, which becomes a vicious cycle of frustration and insomnia. The relentless voice in our head then mirrors the one that we use to tell our children to just GO TO SLEEP ALREADY(!), our minds juggling the myriads of tasks awaiting us the next day in distress and hopelessness.
However, this can be combatted.
Simply.
Through applying mindfulness techniques.
I know, because I have done it.
I have transformed my sleep pattern from one of frustration, to simply switching off my brain when I am ready and slipping into sleep.
And I have done this through one simple exercise.
In fact, it is the one that is taught in the first intention-setting lesson in A Year of Living with Intention, where we break up monthly intentions into bite-size chunks.
In this group, you are provided with a 5-minute injection at the start of each week to ensure that your goals are thought-out and aligned with your deepest values.
Each lesson targets one facet of the intention and gives you a tip, exercise or assignment to help you apply your knowledge practically.
The course includes an individual journal to help you track your progress, an optional discussion area, where you may choose to interact with other members and direct access for you to ask all questions related to the material presented.
If you apply these actions, by the end of each month you will be able to see real transformation in the way you think, behave and achieve, as you lead a more balanced, more productive and happier life.
Join us here.
Devorah Rabinowitz is a life coach specialising in helping individuals discover their inner leader to reach their potential and achieve at consistently high levels. She sees clients privately and provides live and online coach training. She also offers online self-development group workshops.
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