Today, clinic was all about sleep. Sleep being the ugly stepchild of many homes, its delicate nature is ignored, disrespected, discredited. We are forgetting the contribution to the unit. Every system suffers if sleep isn’t allowed to run it’s healing cycles round and round through a 7 hour night. Medications don’t work as well if the very neurotransmitters that they work on don’t get replenished. The meds are throwing a work-bee without the workers coming in. Our memories drift away, unconsolidated without the deep stages 3 and 4 coming over and over to weave them into us. Our cortisol levels don’t get staged and none of our bits and parts heal very well.
Every night we need to heal. So much happens daily. There is taking without asking. We don’t know our cupboards are empty until we are down right sick. That’s too far. Why get to that point?
Believe that sleep is medical, structural, biological. The results of what it does are nonnegotiable and don’t leave room for the reasons we give for why it isn’t served up.
I’m a night owl.
I take long showers.
I’m too anxious. I can’t turn my thoughts off.
I work the night shift.
Some people think that they can fight sleep with coping skills, water, interpersonal relationships, work, arguments, computer time, hobbies, exercise, medications, and all their good reasons why they can’t get enough. “Sleep” has heard it all. Break it into your belief. This fight is already won. By sleep. You will always lose. Sleep will always win. You must or you suffer.
Sleep.
It’s not personal. It’s objective so quit making it personal. Don’t even let yourself go to that cookie-jar full of excuses, no matter how you crave them. Just work it out. Work it out. No one can really tell you how. They’re your excuses that make sense to you, so what will you do with them? What will you do?
Read more blog-posts on this here.
Self-Care Tip #122 – Sleep well to live well. Be a friend to yourself.
Question: Why do you buy into this or don’t? If you buy it, what will you do or have you done? Please tell me your story.
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I sleep very well thanks 🙂
you’re welcome. i brought it in from france just for you ;). tee hee
i agree with that sleep allways comes and catches up especialy with me if i dont get enuff sleep i get very moody
Hi Kevin! “Moody” is something familiar to me too! Thanks for reading and commenting! Keep on!
Biological and healing. Like working out every other day to restore you muscles. I never quite thought of it that way before. I learned a while back my Jekll and Hyde, sleep vs lack of sleep nature. I refuse to ignore the need because I do not want to be a curmudgeon. And nobody wants to be around that.
Hey Richard. So good to hear from you. You have such a no nonsense approach to things. you’re quite soothing to be around believe it or not, even if you say u struggle w anxiety. no one would think it. I would kind of like to see you as either a curmudgeon Jekll or Hyde. Please?
I have been tackling a number of issues in therapy over the last few months, one of which is my sleep patterns which had been affected to the point where I was lucky to get 4 hrs a night due to the various stresses I was fighting. You are right. Sleep will always win, and needs to win, in order for you to properly function and be able to sort out your issues. Thanks for the thought-provoking site you have here Doctor. Have a great day!
Hello! I just had a few good snorts over your most resent blog post. Too fun! You are a courageous man. Working therapy is nothing less than hard work. Even though I always describe good therapy like a brain massage, it’s one of those types of massages that hurts but also feels really good. Any way you turn it though, it takes courage. Hope your sleep gets better. I think I enjoy the topic so much in part because it’s still a struggle for me so often to get my own! I hear you! Keep on!
“Sleep Hygiene – my version” http://wp.me/p10lj3-9Z 🙂
Yep, right as usual, Dr. Quijada! Sleep is like air. We only miss it when we don’t have enough of it.
I’ll need to bookmark this comment to show my kids that someone thinks so. pull it out every few months or so! 🙂 I like the air thing. sleep apnea at it’s finest could not say it any better. thanks for reading and commenting. makes such a difference. Keep on!
Ahhh, sleep, gotta love it, gotta have it. There is no replacement, and as my dad used to warn us, it takes days to catch up on one night’s lost sleep. This post is right on. Zzzzzzzzzzzz………..
Hey Zahara! This was always a struggle for me when I was in school. There are some people who biologically don’t need as much sleep. They concentrate, memorize, process cognitively and all that good stuff on 3-4h/nt! They have an advantage to say the least when they can add those extra 4h to their day. Keep on! I know school can feel like the twilight zone that will never end!
I write about the essential need for sleep all the time. I think that sometimes people think they are the exception…that they really don’t need as much sleep as others…that they can continue to sleep poorly and not suffer from it. That’s hogwash. Plus, if you’re already ill, you need sleep to heal! Great job in your post. Love your ‘in your face’ approach 😉 Cinda Crawford
Wonderful to connect w you Cinda! Thank you so much for reading and commenting. What a joy. I really appreciate what you say and would love love love any further feedback you might offer. Keep on!