Sleep

Sleep is often associated with counseling problems, especially depression. Listed below are several ideas on how to improve your sleep. Please remember that improvements in your sleep routine may not produce immediate results. The tendency, therefore, will be for you to drop the disciplines suggested below. Don’t do it. Habits are not formed by a few random attempts to change your life. They are a product of regular, disciplined changes in conduct that cover a period of about six weeks. In other words persevere regardless of whether you obtain the desired immediate results or not. It will come.

1. Keep a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed at the same time every night. Get up at the same time every morning - even if you are sleepy, get up anyway. Set an alarm if need be.

2. Avoid caffeine. Coffee, tea, colas and chocolate often are high in caffeine. Avoid them totally for several hours before bedtime. You may need to avoid them totally all your life. Some people are more sensitive to caffeine than they realize.

3. Avoid meals after 7 PM. A full stomach makes sleep difficult. Your body must take the time and energy to digest this food. This creates an environment of activity in your body. Avoid this.

4. Exercise regularly every day, in the morning, late in the afternoon or early in the evening. Don’t exercise late in the evening, this will be stirring and make it difficult to sleep.

5. Take a hot lingering bath, not a quick shower, just before bedtime. Soak the tensions of the day away. It works.

6. Drink a glass of warm milk just before bed. Milk contains a substance that makes you sleepy.

7. Read a book - but not a stirring one. No thrillers or thought provoking challenges. Read something you know you ought to read but are having a hard time making yourself read. This type of book will often make you drowsy. A good theology textbook ought to do it!

8. Avoid drugs and alcohol entirely. Prescription drugs are one of the biggest causes of sleep disorders. Ask your doctor to take you off of every drug possible.

9. An hour before you go to bed, set the lights low in the house. In this way you will emulate the setting sun. This will help your body prepare for sleep.

10. Keep your room dark, ventilated and at a comfortable sleeping temperature. If you need light, use only a small night-light.

11. Check the locks and bolt the doors before going to bed. You’ll sleep easier knowing this is a nightly ritual.

12. Put on a CD with mood music playing in the background - very quietly. Sounds of soft rain, waves lapping on the seashore, gentle breezes, etc, all tend to encourage sleep.

13. If you wake up during the night, don’t get up and read or watch TV because you can’t sleep. When you do this, you contribute to the creation of the habit of waking up and getting up during the night. Don’t do it. Lie in bed until you go back to sleep.

14. Consider using the health food supplements Phosphatidylserine Complex, Melatonin, Valerian, or Kava Kava. And very importantly try drinking a caffeine free cup of Chamomile herbal tea. All these contribute to sleep. In addition, St. John's wort is considered by many to be a natural, non-drug, anti-depressant. You might consider this herb if this is a problem area with you. Eechinacea has a reputation for bolstering the immune system and ginkgo biloba is said to improve the memory. Vitamins, minerals, and herbs are often thought to improve the health of many. In so doing, they improve the emotional well being also. They can be purchased at a health food store. If you have any doubts as to whether it would be helpful to use them, ask your physician.

15. Go to bed with a predetermined meditation and prayer in you heart. Especially focus on thanking God for the good things he has and is doing in your life. Develop a grateful, selfless spirit in your prayers. However, do not use this as your main prayer time. Do that another time. Meditate on a Bible verse as you drop off to sleep. If you wake up during the night, start this all over again until you fall off to sleep again.

16. Worry and anxiety will keep you awake. If this is a problem, tell your counselor exactly what you are worrying or anxious about. These problems can be put to rest in counseling. Then you can rest at night.

Sleep is very important. Many so-called “psychological” problems are nothing more than the accumulated effects of sleep loss. Don’t underestimate the importance of this project, it can make the difference in success or failure in your counseling effort.

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