Many people struggle with sleep disorders. Those that have an autoimmune disease often have sleep disturbances. The reasons for that are varied; from pain keeping you up at night, depression, stress, and anxiety, or the immune system may be attacking cells involved in the sleep process. Whatever the reason, feeling sleep deprived is just another thing to get someone with an autoimmune disorder down.
Today I wanted to talk to you about a few tips that you can use to help you sleep better. Whether you have an autoimmune disease or not, these tips can help!
8 Tips to Sleep Better
- Maintain a regular sleep schedule. This needs to be kept up during the week and weekend to ensure you are getting enough sleep every day.
- An hour before bed time needs to be relaxation time. Run a bath, read a book, pray, listen to music, meditate. Whatever you do to relax, this is the time to do it. Get your mind and body ready for sleep.
- Prepare your bedroom for sleep.
- Observe the temperature and make sure it is where you like it to be. Dress accordingly.
- Make sure there is low/no light in the room.
- If you have pain in your joints, you may want to have extra pillows in bed with you. Get those ready.
- Cut back or eliminate nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol from your life. These interfere with your sleep and can keep you up at night.
- Good nutrition is important but don’t go to bed hungry or feeling full. You need to be comfortable. The same is true for drinking. Empty your bladder before bed and avoid drinking large amounts the hours before bedtime to eliminate the need to get up after you are in bed.
- Physical activity is important to your sleep. I know those with autoimmune diseases may not find this as easy to do but trying to be active (as much as you can handle) is what you should do.
- Use essential oils if you are having problems. Before turning to medication, you may want to try something natural. We use essential oils for sleep on my kids and I have different mixes I use too. (I’d be happy to share those, just ask!)
- If you are at your wit’s end and need help, talk to your doctor. You may need additional help managing stress (counseling possibly) to help with sleep or you may opt to get medication for insomnia. There is no harm in that if you need it.
I hope these tips help you with how to manage your sleep problems. I have struggled for years with sleep issues and, when my pain is at the point of being “not tolerable”, I will go days on a few hours of sleep because of it. The hope is that we all will be getting a good night’s sleep every day!
What do you do when you have trouble sleeping?
Oh poor Twinnie. You against the world. In your mind. I’m for Cappy getting this start. I’m sure cooler heads will prevail and it goes back to Smith next weekend. As bad as NOs defense is supposed to be, they present a lot of problems for whoever QBs tomorrow.Is Harbaugh playing games? Uh, yeah. But if you want to jump at all the shadows flying around, so be it. Tilt away, Don Quixote. No one else out there wants Alex to play but you . . .
analilia / voto por mis sobrinos que son los mas chidos del mundo ocea pareja num. 5 de jiova y ale y claro que van a ganar
That’s the peercft insight in a thread like this.
I wouldn’t mind trying essential oils for sleeping. I always hear how wonderful they are but I haven’t given them a go yet.
Oh Rosey! You really should give them a try. My youngest (3 years) asked for them tonight because she wasn’t sleeping well the past few days when we skipped them. I put Lavender and Vetiver on her and I would bet that she will sleep peacefully tonight! I diffuse Serenity in my room every night and it helps immensely.