Sleep Habits
Sleep that make a difference
Do you feel fully rested after a night’s sleep? Or do you feel ready to go back to bed? Do you need coffee to just get your eyes open? Me too. That’s why I need sleep habits.
God has been telling me it’s time to rest
Throughout the year I have been hearing over and over on podcasts, and in different books that I’m reading, whatever, about how God has given us the gift of rest. From the moment he finished creating he created a day of rest. God wasn’t tired. That rest is for us. I need rest. Rest in various areas of my life, but definitely, definitely physically. I need sleep. And if I’m being honest, I don’t have sleep habits.
Life has been so hard these last several years. I am getting older. I am more tired than ever before. And I really, really just need to develop good sleep habits, schedules, routines. Something!
One night, when I was on TikTok (not sleeping), I found a video by some lady teaching a class about sleep habits. And I have no idea who she is or what the name of it is, but I thought – this is it! This is what I have been looking for. So I don’t remember everything exactly, but I did make some notes on my phone and this is what I remember.
In order to get rid of insomnia there is a number of habits or routines, or practices you can put into place and I hope to begin implementing as many of these as possible right away. And I intend to track my progress and continue implementing more and more until I kick insomnia to the curb. Let’s hear it for a good nights sleep and new sleep habits!
Below are the things I remember that she said to do. Some of these I put in my own words, so I don’t know exactly if I captured them. But here we go.
Sunshine
Let that sunshine hit your face in the morning. Don’t stare at the sun. But let the sun touch your face and your eyes will take in that sunshine (even if your eyes are closed).
Water
Our bodies are made up of 70% water. Seriously? Are you refreshing that water each day? I’m not. But let’s do better. We need fresh water, and we need it each and every day.
Bedtime
So, you are a night owl, huh? Me too! But apparently, that’s not good for us. In fact, in the winter we should be hitting the hay at 9 pm. (Summer we can stay up until 10-hooray!).
Trust in God
One of my favorite verses for this is Psalm 4:8 “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Leave it all in God’s hands. He knows what we need.
Abstain from stimulants
I use caffeine for energy. 2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said unto me ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'” I know it’ a stretch, but I do need energy and Christ’s strength when I’m at Youth Group Tuesday nights…
Breathe deeply
I had bronchitis for an entire year. I began looking at alternative care methods. And one is … breathe… deeply. In our hectic lives do we not even have time to breathe? God gave us the breath of life, let’s take it in deeply. Inhale through the nose, exhale through your mouth.
Good nutrition
The important factor for sleeping is that you do NOT have a big heavy meal before you try to rest. Indigestion, and other digestive issues may keep you awake, or even wake you up from sleep. Try to make lunch the largest meal of the day, and keep dinner on the lighter side.
Exercise to sweat
When we sleep, melatonin is released and it can relieve pain. But the problem is, we can only produce so much melatonin. Our body won’t produce excess amounts of melatonin. But exercising to the point of sweating will use up your melatonin so that your body produces more of it when you sleep.
Following the outline above, I’m aiming to teach myself good bed time routines and habits so that at the end of 2024, I feel rested. That sounds AMAZING!!!!
STOP letting time manage you (part 2)
Do you let time manage you? I am finite, and time is finite, what do I actually, truly, deeply desire to do with time? Do I want to manage it?
Tired of time managing you? How to make it stop (part 1)
Life is busy. I’m sure you already know. But I’ve begun realizing that sometimes, life is busy because I let time manage me. What are some of the pitfalls of catering to time’s insistent ticking?
But … I just need to be better with my money …
How many times have I said “I just need to be better with my money”? And I truly believed that was true. But God had something to tell me about this blanket statement I made all the time. He doesn’t think I need to be better. He thinks I need to STOP being wicked.
How do we become wise? God’s Wisdom Study Week 3
Studying Proverbs with Timothy Keller’s book “God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life”, each week I will do a quick recap. Week Three. How do we become wise?
What is Foolishness? God’s Wisdom Study Week 2
Week Two of Proverbs Study using Timothy Keller’s book God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life. What is foolishness?
What is wisdom? Week 1 God’s Wisdom Study
Studying Proverbs by working through Timothy Keller’s book “God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life”, each week I will do a quick recap. Week One.