Healing Practices and Self-Nurturing Rituals Series - Restorative Sleep

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Restorative sleep refers to reaching certain stages in a person’s natural sleep cycle – REM and deep sleep. When you are sleeping and enter these stages, your body is working hard to repair and restore itself for the coming day ahead.

A fantastic way to heal and self-nurture is to make sure you’re getting plenty of sleep. When you get enough sleep, you’re ensuring that your body has time to enter REM and deep sleep cycles.

If you have difficulties with sleep and need to restore your relationship with your sleeping cycles, try the following:

● Select a regular bedtime and stick with it.

● Create a bedtime routine that gets your body prepared and ready for sleeping (brush your teeth, set out clothing for the next day, take any medications, take a shower, etc.).

● Avoid bright lights around your bedtime.

● Only use your bed for sleeping and sex – reading, balancing the checkbook, checking emails, etc. need to happen somewhere else!

● Avoid taking naps during the day unless you absolutely must.

● Make sure you’re getting plenty of exercise during the day.