Sleeping Beauty
This August we’ve spotlighted Sleep Awareness and the importance of sleep in our daily lives. Attuning ourselves to our natural rhythm of wakefulness and sleeping and it’s potential oscillations between consistent and darn right random encourages us to not only learn how to get better rest, but also to learn about habits, practices, and routines that will and can improve our sleep quality and overall health.
Understanding what affects our sleep can also play a pivotal role in discovering how to nurture the lacking aspects of both our mental health and physical health. For example, when we lie awake at night and are so done with trying to count sheep, it’s most common to blame the disability to sleep on stress, depression, anxiety, adrenaline or the torturous memory of something stupid we may or may not have said in 2009. When in fact, it could be a multitude of unconsidered factors at play that we’re totally oblivious to. For example...
Trouble Falling Asleep
It has been argued that our ability to fall asleep is interconnected with what we do out of bed. How we execute our days corresponds directly with how our sleep will be executed; so it’s essential to move during the day to burn off energy. So firstly we prescribe: Being active for at least 30 minutes a day. Also, most of us go from busy daytimes and drop right into bed, and that is not easy, nor particularly helpful for a quality and renewing night's sleep. To help induce sleep, we recommend creating the right environment. It’s of utmost importance to allow time to transition from day to night, which gives the body the opportunity to tap into rest mode. To help create your dreamy and drowsy environment, we suggest Cocolux's Tonka Bean and Lime Zest Candle, and any from their range in fact. Candles engage all five senses into rest and relaxation mode, inspiring your mind body and spirit to be seduced into a slumber.
waking up in the night
The reasons for waking up and staying up during the night can vary from person to person, but for young and middle-aged adults, it’s usually accredited to anxiety. In your conscious waking life, you might not even be aware of the extent of the webs of anxiety that could be spinning insidiously in your subconscious. The subconscious mind is a murky place and unresolved issues could be the cause of any troublesome dreams, too. So we recommend meditating on any recurring themes in dreams/nightmares that could be representative of a past wound that needs healing, for example. Also, there is a way through and out: the best efforts we can take in placating any known or unknown anxieties that might be causing us to wake up in the middle of the night is to actively do something calming upon suddenly waking, like banging on a Spacemask - Now what could provide instant switch-off better than a product designed specifically to induce relaxation? Each cosmic foil mask in your Spacemasks pack is infused with jasmine to help lull you to back sleep, release facial tension and headaches to help you reach a new found level of bliss.
waking up tired
The word and the feeling is, groggy. If you consistently wake up feeling groggy - or even exhausted - it could be an issue with the actual quality of your sleep. For instance if you feel tired no matter how much sleep you’re getting, it's clearly not the quantity. To get to the root of this kind of issue, you might discover that it likely could be hormonal, a sleep-disorder, or another issue altogether. A common nutritional deficiency related to poor sleep is a lack of magnesium in your diet. This multi-tasking mineral is crucial for energy production, nerve relaxation and bone health. Magnesium is rather an elusive nutrient that is battered by our modern life, i.e. alcohol consumption, stress, coffee, sweating, digestive ill health, parasitic infection, heavy menstruation, diuretics, ant-acids and the contraceptive pill are all examples of how we can [unknowingly] reduce and deplete our magnesium store.
All things considered, the two paradigms of optimal sleep are quality and quantity. 7-9 hours a night is the recommended ideal, of continuous and not fragmented shut-eye for you to feel your best during the day. Our final and unconditional product recommendation to foster your shut-eye awareness is Sirocco's Evening Tea - Touting relaxing and soothing properties, this blend makes a delightful addition to your evening wind-down routine.
