Wakeful slumber
PAID CONTENT
After a hard day at work, home or play, you go to bed, heart set on having a good night’s sleep. Then you lay there, wide awake, or semi-awake, mind going a mile a minute. You look at the clock — an hour has gone by. You toss and turn, trying to find that magical position that will allow you to drop into a restful slumber, but it eludes you. Maybe another hour or two has passed. You either stick it out, desperate to eke out the remaining hours you have before you’re required to get up, or maybe you get up and do something mundane, hoping boredom will take over and you can sink into the last of your bedtime hours.
Another crazy sleep pattern is where you fall asleep fairly easily, but then an hour or two later you are wide awake. You try desperately to recapture those peaceful moments, the need for more of it ever circling your mind, but sleep is nowhere to be found.
Maybe you are in a dreamful state — not really asleep, but not really awake either. You toss and turn, fall asleep, wake again, get up to find relief, but are not able to return to sleep. Maybe your dreams are so vivid that all the efforts to fall asleep are to no avail.
There are as many reasons why you can’t sleep as there are types of sleeplessness. But the results are all the same. You wake tired, you do your daily activities tired, you go to bed tired, feeling like all that fatigue is surely enough to drop an orangutan to sleep. But it’s not. The same sleeplessness haunts you night after night until one night, the body has no choice and you finally find one night’s sleep. But it’s not enough.
Sleep deprivation can affect every aspect in your life. You are less efficient, less patient, quicker to anger and get frustrated, more prone to accidents, and an emotional balance just isn’t there.
Do you know what woke you? Do you track your diet? Do you have a bedtime routine? Do you eat something before bed, or do you avoid food before bed? When do you exercise — before bed or early in the morning?
There are so many things that affect sleep, and each of the above scenarios have different causes. It is important that you take a look at the totality of not only all mentioned above, but other health conditions you have.
The No. 1 most important thing about restoring sleep is the detective work that is done to put together a pattern of health issues, medications, exercise, water, foods, and much more to find the underlying culprit that is making what should be slumber more of a wakeful experience. Sleep better — come to our upcoming health class, “7 Secrets to Getting to Sleep, Staying Asleep & Waking Refreshed,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, at Vital Health in Coeur d’Alene. Fee: $10. RSVP: 208-765-1994 or register here: http://bit.ly/VHSleepClass.
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Holly Carling is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Naturopathy, Clinical Nutritionist and Master Herbologist with nearly four decades of experience. Carling is a “Health Detective,” she looks beyond your symptom picture and investigates WHY you are experiencing your symptoms in the first place. Carling is currently accepting new patients and offers natural health care services and whole food nutritional supplements in her Coeur d’Alene clinic. Visit Carling’s website at www.vitalhealthcda.com to learn more about Carling, view a list of upcoming health classes and read other informative articles. Carling can be reached at 208-765-1994 and would be happy to answer any questions regarding this topic.