Sweet Sleep

The second pillar of health according to Dr. Don Colbert is Sleep & Rest. I have some very good habits in the sleep department but was surprised at how much I benefited from this chapter. We already keep our bedroom tv and clutter free, retire early, and endeavour to do more quiet & restful activities in the hour before bed. I also find that regular exercise helps me feel more tired at bedtime--but not if done too late in the day!

Most mothers can attest to the challenge of getting adequate amounts of sleep and rest while our children are young. Reading this, I apologize in advance to all you who have little ones who infringe on your nightly rest! I am way past that stage now but due to hormonal changes I now face strange new sleep disruptions. Temperature fluxuations, disturbing dreams, panic attacks and plain old insomnia are new obstacles for me to overcome. Used to be that my biggest problems were caffeine intake, trying to finish my work so I could get to bed or being too excited or troubled to fall asleep right away.

Then there is the snoring...

My husband snores. Not just a little either. It has been recorded and played back to him. When he snores in our bedroom with the door closed, you can hear it downstairs. I knew this was an irritation to my sleep but in the past year with my own growing sleep issues, it has become more disruptive.

We tried Breathe Right strips for Shawn who has been tested twice for sleep apnea, but they only help if the snoring is nasal which on many occasions it isn't. We are still looking for resolution in this area as the only solution is for us to sleep separately on evenings that are particularly troubled and neither of us really like that option. Any suggestions?

One recommendation that I have found very helpful was using an air purifier by my bed to create "white noise". My dear husband uses earplugs (to block out his own snoring perhaps?) and I have found that I am alert to every little noise that I hear during the night because of this. The hum of the purifier blocks out many of the little disruptions within & without the house that bring me out of sleep prematurely.

The quality of a good's night sleep makes a huge difference in my ability to make better choices and enjoy my day. I find that I have to honour my sleep time by not overcrowding my schedule and using those valuable night-time hours to get ahead in my tasks except on occasion. I'm glad that I stopped having caffeine daily and have learned to listen to my body's naturally-occuring demand for zzzzz...even if it means that I can't survive on 5-6 hours sleep anymore!