Struggling with sleep?? Explore this page and you may find ideas and practices that could help guide you towards a more supportive daily/nightly rhythm.

OPTIMAL HEALTH IS A RHYTHM

The rhythm of life is a dance of opposites; expand and contract, light and dark, effort and surrender, inhale and exhale, mobilization and rest, leaning in and leaning back, zooming in and zooming out, etc.

Too much of any one thing is going to lead to imbalance and a domino effect of dysfunction and distress.

To be healthy is to be flexible, adaptive, agile, and a sense of stability that goes deeper than whatever instability is also present.

CORTISOL RHYTHM:

A healthy flow of cortisol follows this same rhythmic intelligence. Ideally, our peak cortisol happens upon waking in the morning and it slowly dissipates throughout the day as the trend toward bedtime leads to our lowest levels of cortisol.

When this daily rhythm is not in alignment, and cortisol is either in a chronic high or depleted state, many distressing and devastating symptoms occur, impacting every major system in the body (including energy levels, mood, emotional instability, sleep difficulty, weight gain, inflammation, heart issues, sexual organ dysfunction, etc.).

Experiment with these various practices that serve to stabilize your cortisol rhythm. Note: Your adrenal glands do best with predictable routines, so persistence is key:

*Choose one or two from the list to focus on one week at a time

Routine sleep patterns

• going to bed and waking around the same time every day (let this be a life-long exploration that allows deviation and flexibility, while still aiming for relative consistency).

Activating practices in the morning to increase cortisol

• invigorating breathwork,

• cold shower,

• bouncing/tremoring,

• dynamic movement/exercise,

• sunlight in the eyes,

• caffeine

Mid-Day

• get outside,

• hands and/or feet on the Earth for 2-3 minutes, or hands on a tree,

• focus on hydration,

• engage in diverse movement practices/exercise,

• stabilize blood sugar levels by avoiding major spikes or drops in blood sugar through the day (moderation in everything),

• social interaction,

• friends/animal companions,

• hugs and touch with people you feel safe with.

Downregulating practices in the evening

• reduce water intake to avoid midnight wakeup (hydration focus in the morning and midday),

• generally avoid eating 1.5-2 hours before bed,

• limit alcohol intake,

• calming breathwork,

• gentle movement and long hold stretches,

• warm shower/bath,

• dim lights/reduce screen time (avoid intense media),

• decaf tea (stop caffeine intake by 1pm at the latest),

• reflect on day/write in journal.

YOGA NIDRA

A guided meditation that leads to a steady down-regulation of the nervous system. Ideally, this is a practice to utilize in the morning or early afternoon as a reset for your nervous system. However, if you struggle with falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early, utilize this practice as a support to guide you into a sleepy state. Follow this link to access a few of my yoga nidra recordings

MORE RESOURCES:

I have a couple of youtube playlists with resources I have gathered for sleep support.

Playlist - My Yoga Nidra teacher and friend Tanis Fishman, a couple of Internal Family Systems sleep meditations, short interviews about breath and sleep, and a few music tracks that are calming

Playlist - Meditation and gentle movement recordings I made several years ago

May this serve as support as you continue on this journey to better sleep.