ADVERTISING: Advertorial — HOLLY CARLING: How do you sleep during times like this?

Sleep issues plague millions of Americans, resulting in lack of productivity, relationship stressors and more. Add to this the stress of all that is going on in the world today and we just keep looping through sleeplessness and being in our head. How do we sleep during times like this?

First of all, thoughts and fears rolling through your head is not the only reason you may not be sleeping well. But if it is, try reading or watching something on TV (with blue light blockers in place) that is non-stressful and even boring, enough to take your thoughts somewhere else.

Use nighttime routines that encourage sleep. Dim your lights early and stay off of cellphones, computers, laptops and bright readers. Wearing blue-light blocking glasses helps most people, but it is still good to turn off all electronics two hours before bed if possible.

If you’re in bed and your brain goes back to whatever fears or stressors are in your life, try brain-dumping. When your brain is going, there is a part of it that also keeps saying “don’t forget this in the morning,” further keeping your brain alive. To remedy that, keep a pen and post-it-notes under your pillow. When you have a thought, write it down. Don’t sit up, don’t turn on a light, just write it down, eyes closed. Then tear off a page and throw it onto the floor by your bed to prevent you from writing over it again. It works amazingly well.

Make sure that you are eating appropriately before bed; only light foods that are low-carb and some easy-to-digest protein (but only a small amount of it, about the size of a Baby Bel cheese). You want your body to rest, not be busy digesting, so protein is important, but not too much. Doing this helps your blood sugar stabilize. If you had a large meal earlier, eat a tiny snack before bed. Try to allow as close to four to five hours between dinner and bedtime as possible, with the exception of the snack. Many mid-night, mid-morning wake-ups are a result of unstable blood sugar. There’s more you can do here, but this is a start.

Avoid the use of melatonin supplements. Made by the pineal gland in the center of the brain, your own melatonin helps your body know when to sleep and when to wake. Exogenous melatonin (consumed internally, rather than made by your body) can cause a dependency on it and circumvent your own body’s ability to produce it. An amino acid, L-Tryptophan is needed to make melatonin. You can get some extra l-tryptophan from red meat, poultry, fish beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, eggs and oats.

Sleeplessness can also be caused by hormonal imbalances or health problems such as pain, medication side-effects, digestive problems and the list goes on. Come see us and let us get down to the cause of your sleeplessness, so you can sleep well despite all the chaos going on around you.

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Holly Carling is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Naturopathy, Clinical Nutritionist and Master Herbologist with over 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.