Not sleeping? Read this.

Good sleep is the foundation of health and you know this.

Yet for some reason you keep waking up each morning feeling like you haven’t slept at all (and maybe you barely have).

When you’re dealing with low moods, anxiety or chronic stress, there’s often a near constant subconscious (or sometimes very conscious) perception of threat. Whether it’s from fears from the past or anxieties about the future, for one reason or another you don’t quite feel at ease.

This is called hypervigilance.

In this state, though sleep might be exactly what you want, it can feel impossible to relax.

Instead your mind keeps darting from place to place. You might find yourself reliving moments from your day or becoming hyper-aware of everything in your environment.

You might feel like you constantly need to be ‘on the go’, doing something and planning your next moves.

Relaxation and letting your guard down feels challenging. These two are essential for getting good sleep.

Yet waking up feeling well rested, ready to embrace the day doesn't have to feel so far away.

Imagine feeling so deeply relaxed that it changed your consciousness and created space within your mind - consequently creating more space in your day!

You deserve that kind of rest and to create that kind of reality where you’re able to put your best self forward each time.

When you have the right tools and practices, this doesn’t have to be challenging!

So what can you do to ease hypervigilance and get better sleep?

First let’s explore what might be happening in your body.

Once you have the knowledge of what's happening, you can then make informed choices of how you want to move forwards.

Your cortisol levels are up

In an ideal world, you’d start your day with your cortisol levels at their highest point (this helps you get up and go). Throughout your day they would gradually taper down, reaching their lowest point before bed, allowing you to relax and sleep.

However, when you’re dealing with chronic stress, anxiety or low moods, you might have chronically elevated cortisol levels or be consistently spiking your levels throughout the day right up until bed time.

In this state, relaxation feels impossible as your physiology is priming you to stay awake and alert.

Your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is consistently at an elevated level of activity.

High cortisol and increased SNS activity generally go hand in hand. Part of the SNS’ job is to moderate energy levels and with increased SNS activity comes an increase in available energy throughout the body.

Your body wants you to use that energy!

This again, is priming you to maintain a state of alertness, where you might find yourself planning your next moves, reliving moments from the past or becoming hyperaware of your environment.

This state, as you might guess, isn’t too congruent with sleep and relaxation.

Relaxing doesn’t feel safe for you

Ever had a busy day, finally gotten to a moment when you could relax and instead of actually relaxing you just felt restless?

The physiological processes that come with chronic stress and anxiety leave your mind and body in a state of perceived threat, whether internal or external. You consciously or unconsciously look for threat (what could go wrong) and downplay signals of safety. In this place, relaxation feels unsafe, because your mind and body are anticipating what could be coming.

But what happens when the threat is unclear, never comes and never passes?

What about when the threat lives in your mind?

Luckily, there are simple techniques for changing the signalling, soothing your nervous system and improving your sleep.

Read on to find out more!

Embodied Safety
In order to improve your sleep, you need to be able to connect with an internalised sense of safety, this paves the way for deep relaxation. Here is where mind-body practices come in and help you create change by connecting you with an embodied feeling of safety.

There are lots of different ways of connecting with this (finding what works for you in this is step one in all my courses, workshops and programs!) and if you explored them all, you’d likely find one that works perfectly for you.

In it's simplest form, you could choose to focus on grounding, noticing all the points of contact you have with support, allowing yourself to be held & supported where you are.

When you can connect with an internalised sense of safety, you pave the way for true self-regulation. You’re able to move through the world with greater ease and make decisions from a place of authenticity rather than fear.

Movement
When your cortisol levels are up and your sympathetic nervous system is increasing in activation your body wants you to move! Though you might expect this to give you more energy, when you’re not sleeping, this might feel like a combination of feeling wired and tired at the same time, so tune into your body and choose your movement intuitively!

Depending on your energy levels this could be anything from incorporating more natural movement into your day (e.g. walking) or setting out time for a movement practice like yoga. Whatever you choose, make sure to set out time for stretching, to release muscle tension too.

As you move, bring your attention to the sensations in your body and focus on slowing down your breaths.

This will not only allow your body to use the energy that’s been building up but also bring into greater connection with your body and yourself while decreasing your cortisol levels & increasing parasympathetic activity.

Deep relaxation
When was the last time you set out time to truly rest? (...and no, I don’t mean lying on the sofa to watch tv) Do you have practices that allow you to cultivate a state of deep relaxation?

If you’ve been struggling to relax and sleep, this might feel foreign! Think about what you can incorporate into the end of your day to cultivate deep rest.

You might choose to practise nidra meditation or a few restorative poses or stretches to help soothe you and calm your nervous system down. Ideally, you’ll have moved during your day, releasing some of the anxious energy in your body, allowing you to rest.

This again works to decrease cortisol levels and increase parasympathetic nervous system activity.

If this still feels like a struggle, add gentle spinal movements and slow breathing practices.

When you’re able to properly rest, you’re able to face the world as your best self.

You invite in moments of connection with your loved ones.

Life feels smoother and your creativity is up.

You’re able to access a sense of inner strength that moves you through the world from a place of clarity, so you can move forwards and create a life you love.

Want to learn more about simple practices to improve your sleep?

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