Lack of sleep is the reason I was ill.
Last week I shared with you how I had been struggling with Adrenal Fatigue over the l last 6 months and how, after much internal work, I am now on the steady road to recovery.
It has taken months of total self-care that has involved dialling in my nutrition, banishing HIIT workouts in exchange for more restorative practices such as yoga, stretching and longer meditation sessions as well as making more spare time for me.
One thing that has been a huge help to me is making sure I get more sleep AND making sure I have a better sleep routine/pattern.
I am not going to bore you with all the science behind sleep patterns here (Please PM me if you would like more info) but in the most basic terms, I was messing with my own circadian rhythm by not having a regular sleep pattern over the past 6 months.
Now, with a regular 8 hours per night, a strict pre bed routine (something else that had slipped during my illness) and making sure my bedroom is a work free place, I have been feeling great again!!
Then, this Monday, I woke feeling like I had been hit by a bulldozer!
At first, I had put this down to a very intense reflexology session on the Sunday. A reflexology session that I really struggled to stay awake during and at the time I had put down to just the relaxing session and situation.
In hindsight, it was more likely that I was just exhausted again.
Then when I looked back over the previous 4-5 days, I realised how intense my days had been and I hadn’t been topping up with enough sleep.
Thursday and Friday were incredibly busy days for and I had spent a solid 6-8 hours on both days at my laptop (very draining in itself).
Thursday night I was out and then Friday I had a later night staying up watching some TV to unwind (but again, sitting in front of a digital screen)
Saturday and Sunday were very relaxing days but I was again late to bed on Saturday night and woken at the break of dawn by a super excited Oscar (clearly happy spring is now here!)
The lack of sleep took my body straight back to feeling like I did at the height of my adrenal fatigue symptoms.
I know not everyone is suffering with AF, but I believe this just highlights the effect that a lack of sleep has on your mind and your body.
Because even though I was eating very well at the weekend, having a lot of downtime and having fun (I took Oscar swimming in the river Thames) it was the simple act of not sleeping enough that ruined the start of the week for me and took me 2 days to get back to being 100%.
Are you sleeping enough?
Do you have a pre-bed routine that serves you?
Are you consuming too much blue light from your digital devices every day?
If you would like to know more about how to bring these healthy habits into your life, you can apply to work with me below:
https://healthbuddy.fit/contact/
