Sleeping Well

Hello fellow inmates! hehehe

WorldChanging

Yesterday I discovered WorldChanging. It's a website that lists quests for you to accomplish. They help inspire you to be a better person, give you something to work towards and give you purpose. You can then log in the quests that you have successfully accomplished and they give you points in return. The quests are to help the environment and ultimately to change the world for the better.

Sleeping history
I personally have trouble with my sleep. I'm the type who wakes up if a leaf falls in the woods 10 miles away (that's exaggerated) but I do wake up if the tiny red dot light goes off on Mr.Hubby's phone, which is tucked away under the desk (he sleeps on the floor and keeps his phone next to him, under the desk.) That's how thin my eyelids are. I also wake up if someone next door moves. Basically I have very light sleep so this is something I want to work towards improving.

Quest

I chose a quest about sleep to improve my health. The quest has 3 levels and this gave me the idea for this post. Check this specific quest here!

Level 1: Quit or reduce caffeine intake (at least after midday). The quest asks to reduce caffeine and to stop all caffeine after midday (coffee, tea, energy drinks, fizzy drinks etc.) Luckily for me I actually believe that intoxicants and stimulants are to be completely avoided. The reason for this is that if I was constantly or often stimulated then how would I know how I'm really feeling? Am I tired, excited, awake, up-beat, down? It seams that if I were on stimulants then I would be artificially awake even though my body might actually need to be asleep at that moment, and I find that quite freeky. For the same reason I never pain killers, because if I have a headache and feel the pain, I know there is something wrong so I can adapt my lifestyle during the pain, such as: take a nap, a hot shower, relax and be very slowly as to not shake my head too much. If I took a pain killer, I wouldn't feel the pain and therefore carry on my busy life, running after kids or doing whatever I might be doing... And I wouldn't know when the headache was actually healed because I didn't wait for it to heal itself. So when the painkiller wears off, the head ache might be even worse since I didn't wind down for it. Intoxicants are also completely off the table, I'm happy with knowing that what I'm feeling at any given time is naturally what I'm experiencing from life rather than artificially induced.
We switched to decaf tea and simply natural decaf drinks a while back now, BUT someone in my house does drink coffee and brought some in to my kitchen and before I knew it I was adding a few sprinkles of instant coffee to my pure cocoa drinks...  I am a little disappointed in myself but I'm not being too harsh. I do realise that I'm not exactly murdering anyone although I do believe in being very careful to find out where we buy our products from just incase someone was actually murdered for us to get it! Hubby's granny actually gave us this coffee so I'm not too bothered, since it was already bought there's not much we could do about it. And it's very tasty too!! So I do only have sprinkle because it also effects spirituality; intoxicants and stimulants should be avoided to develop stronger spiritual connections! That is the main reason for me (although I do get physically effected by caffeine and end up sleeping bad! eeek)

So I'm following this quest and going to (try to) avoid caffeine, at the very best only have it before midday.

Yumchaa's chilli chilli bang bang is so delicious!!!

Level 2: Make sure the bedroom is dark and unwired. This one I find very important too, the little lights that remain and the faint buzzing and hummings from our electrics are things that keep me from having a good night sleep. And even if you can't hear or see them, they're probably effecting your sleep too! So unplug your stuff and shut your curtains! Everything in our bedroom goes back to one plug central, so we just shut that plug off and done, easy.

Level 3: Do all the bathroom stuff at least half an hour before you want to sleep (or keep the light levels low). Good point! Bathroom lights are usually so bright and can easily take you out of your sleepy mood. But not only that, if you leave your bedtime, bathroom routine to the last minute you can easily be too tired to go through with it and go to bed dirty or force yourself to go through with it and risk waking yourself up or delaying your bedtime. Either is a no-no. So stop what your doing ON TIME and get ready for bed. I would say do it 1 hour before bed, like that you can finish whatever you have to do and know that you are already ready for bed, with no pressure to hurry and get in to bed nice and relaxed.

These 3 things are not the only things you can do for better sleep but they are simple and a good start. And I'm gonna try to stick to them!

Other helpful things include:
 -drink enough water during the day (so you don't suddenly realise your thirsty at bed time, drink a liter and pee all night!)
-drink a small cup of pure chamomile tea before bed to relax your body.
-turn the radiator off in your room (I get a bit cold in the night and use a hot water bottle.)

Other things? What do you do to have a good night sleep?? let us know!

Take it easy folks!
Peace and good zZ night Zz
J