Sleep Well Anywhere On World Sleep Day
Happy World Sleep Day! This annual event is organised by the World Association of Sleep Medicine to celebrate the benefits of good healthy sleep and to draw attention to the burden of sleep problems. One-third of adults suffer from insomnia and many treatment approaches fail to fix the root cause.
By helping people to sleep I wake them up to their full potential. I overcame chronic insomnia and want to raise awareness to help others unlock the missing piece of the puzzle for natural sleep. Good sleep isn’t just about what you do before bed. It’s dependent on a combination of factors including beliefs and thought patterns and also a commonly overlooked element: brainwave flexibility.
The search for the most effective treatment methods to cure my insomnia
I developed chronic insomnia after a fast-paced career in finance. I exhausted the commonly recommended treatment options, with no results: meditation, acupuncture, psychologists, relaxation techniques. You name it, I tried it. I travelled the world focused on researching and training in the most effective methods of treating insomnia. I studied a large array of modalities including hypnotherapy, neurolinguistic programming, coaching, sound therapy, cognitive re-patterning, and brainmapping with the highly regarded neuroscientist Dr. Joe Dispenzer. Finally my sleep struggles disappeared! The key was learning about brainwaves, which were the missing part of the puzzle for me.
Brainwave flexibility helps sleep come naturally
It sounds obvious but sometimes you have to practice or re-learn how to relax. In today’s society we move at a fast pace with constant stimulation and pressure, which has resulted in a reduction in our brainwave flexibility. During the day when we concentrate, we are in a beta brainwave state. When we relax we go into the slower alpha brainwave state. When we are deeply relaxed (almost asleep) we go into theta. If the brain cannot transition between these states easily, we lose our ability to be able to shift gears, slow down our brainwaves, and enter the delta brainwave state of sleep.
Practice regular relaxation
By regularly spending time doing relaxing activities that slow the brainwaves throughout the day, we can improve brainwave flexibility and achieve deeper sleep more easily. It is much easier to fall asleep with melatonin (made from serotonin) in our bodies, than it is to fall asleep with stress hormones in our bodies. Even though we may not be aware of it, our racing minds are producing these stress hormones.
But is it just about relaxing and meditating? Unfortunately not. The main reason meditating and relaxing can help with improving sleep is because it can increase our access to a slower brainwave state. But here’s the thing: for people who have lost their brainwave flexibility, it is extremely difficult to get into the slower brainwave state required for meditation or other forms of relaxation to be helpful. This is why meditation simply isn’t effective for so many people – if they’re unable to switch off their racing mind, it will prevent them from being able to meditate and relax.
I use an holistic coaching technique that accelerates the restoration of brainwave flexibility as well as addressing all key elements of sleep health including nervous system, lifestyle, sleep strategies and thought patterns, so that sleep comes easily again.
I’m reminded why I got into this profession when I see my clients brimming with positive energy and vitality. A lot of them have just forgotten how to truly relax.
To celebrate World Sleep Day, The Sleep Expert is offering a limited number of free sleep strategy sessions this month. Contact us to register and find out more: support@thesleepexpert.com