A Stress Management Tip:
Get More Sleep!

A great stress management tip for improving your mental, physical, and emotional well-being is to get more sleep. Of course, this is often easier said than done for many people, but it's absolutely necessary for healthy functioning.

The problem is, it's not that many people don't want to sleep, it's just that they don't know how to stop those racing thoughts, settle down for the night, or how to put the things they need to get done aside until tomorrow. I believe when we lay down to sleep, that is the only time where it's quiet and we are alone with our thoughts and with ourselves. This can be an overwhelming issue if you are constantly busy throughout the day, thus resulting in insomnia and other sleep disorders.

According to the National Institutes of Health, insomnia is usually secondary to other issues such as a mental illness (i.e. anxiety, depression), substances that alter healthy sleep patterns (i.e. caffeine, alcohol, drug use, tobacco, etc.), prescription drug side effects, or health problems. So, as you can guess, the stress management tip of getting more sleep is very complex. The complexity of insomnia really depends on the person and their situation.

However, whatever the reason for insomnia or other sleep disorders, there are tips for improving your sleep habits..

Several of my clients have problems with sleeping and from this, I have come up with a few tips to help improve the quality of your sleep. Here are my suggestions...

• The first and most important stress management tip for getting enough sleep is..Evaluate the Stress in Your Life.
  

  The way to do this is to look over your day and determine whether or not you have been overly stressed.

  • Did you have an overwhelming day at work?
  • Did you and your significant other get into a fight?
  • Did you just have too much to do today (i.e. chores, work, kids, bills, family, etc.)?

  If this has been your case, it's important to begin making priorities. Determine what you can handle and what you can't. Accomplish the most important tasks first, and if you cannot get to the other tasks, let it go for another day.

  If this is difficult for you to do, you may enjoy being stressed and overworked because you don't like being bored. However, you will feel the effects of this with your sleep patterns, making it much difficult to accomplish everything you want to for the next day.

• Another stress management tip is: Give yourself at least 2-3 hours of little to no stress related activities before bedtime.
  

  Give your mind sometime to calm down, otherwise your mind will race while you're trying to sleep. And trying to calm your racing thoughts while you want to sleep is often very difficult and frustrating. It's best to prevent those racing thoughts from getting too overwhelming rather than waiting until it's too late.

• Stretch or exercise your mind and body.
  

  Give yourself time to exercise your mind and your body. Many times the reason it's difficult to get to sleep is because you haven't used enough of your physical or mental energy. The best sleep is when you pass out right away from healthy exhaustion.

  Healthy mental energy is when you use your mind for education purposes such as reading or listening to interesting/mind provoking material, getting involved in a class at a local University, or starting some sort of hobby. Unhealthy mental energy is when you invest your time and thoughts into negative stimuli such as worry, stress, lists, "have toos," "should haves," guilt, and so forth. This is the type of mental energy that causes racing thoughts and keeps you up until the "crack of dawn."

  Of course, with physical activity, anything is better than nothing. If all you can do is stretch, then so be it. It's better than nothing!

• The last stress management tip is: eliminate as many distractions as possible.
  

  I have a problem with this, myself! I like to keep the door open so my cats can lay next to me if they choose too. However, this often keeps me awake a lot longer compared to the times when I shut the door. On the other hand, the biggest distraction is the fact that my husband goes to bed at a different time than I do. He likes to read before he sleeps (healthy mental energy ;), but that keeps me up!

  So, what my husband has done is he'll leave a shirt over the lamp while he reads so the room isn't as bright. Although I would prefer to have complete darkness, this is better than nothing. And since eliminating distractions can be quite difficult (when you live with others), it's a good idea to know what you can handle and what you can't.

  If you need to shut the door, turn the lights off, kick your significant other out of bed, then it may be best to do what you need to in order to get the sleep you desire for healthy living. In terms of your significant other keeping you awake, maybe he or she can invest in their own well-being in order to make the sleeping arrangements much better for both of you.

Improving your sleep patterns as a stress management tip will definitely improve your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. It's just a matter of practice, trial and error, and changing your everyday habits. Follow these above tips and you will notice a change in your sleeping habits.

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