Sleeping with a Chronic illness.

Sleep. It’s vital for us all, right? Right. Studies show that sleep helps not only bring down our stress levels but can also help us heal and loose weight!

So sleep is veeerrry important especially for us chronic illness folk . . .

Unfortunately sleep isn’t easy for the majority of us.

It’s like an illusive carrot at the end of a stick we can hardly ever grasp. For some it’s insomnia. For others it’s hard to stay asleep. For others you wake up multiple times a night and either go back to sleep quickly or irately turn and turn until you are blissfully unconscious once more only to wake up at a reasonable time and be as tired or more than when you went to bed in the first place!

Don’t get me started on morning stiffness. *rolls eyes*

Sleep is hard. But sleep is still important. Just like with pain maintenance, i.e. you should acknowledge the pain, take herbal supplements or your go to pain meds, stretch, pray, basically do all you know to do and then you can try to get your mind off the pain. You’ve done you’re due diligence and now you wait to see if the pain meds will do anything or not. Either way you have to live with it.

Might as well do all we know to do if we can/remember to.

It’s the same with sleep in my opinion. If you can remember to do these steps, insert them into your routine, then they miiiight help! Then again . . . They might not. But it’s better to try??

*ahem* anyways, here are the steps that I take some nights. I.E. when I remember to do them. Sometimes they help a lot! Sometimes they help a bit. Sometimes they don’t do anything at all. But hey, at least we can say to our family/friends “I did everything I know to do. So like, it’s not my fault. Please get off my back. Stretching and deep breathing are not cure alls ._. “

• Take Valerian root pills—this herb is known for helping you sleep. It’s also great for heart health, which is great for me, and it has a TON of health benefits. My dad tells me that the German’s tend to use this for a cure all. (It also helps with anxiety!) Oh! If I haven’t taken any in a while it reallly helps to knock me out!
• Stretch!—especially those hips. The pigeon pose is really good for this. My research showed that for normal people when they can’t sleep it’s probably due to emotional stress which is tended to be stored in our hips! One post recommended that you stretch your hips out before going to bed/or getting up and stretching if you’re having trouble sleeping.—If you can’t due to too much pain or other reasons, no sweat! Try finding some arm stretches and some neck stretches. There’s bound to be a few stretches that you are able to do and can aid your battle for better sleep. But if you can’t, then you can’t right now. Focus on what you can do, dear heart.—
• Essential oils—I have a diffuser in my room that I got for Christmas a long time ago. I put either: Chamomile, Lavender, Frakenscense, or even Bergamot. Sometimes I’ll use multiple or even branch out into different blends. It tends to help even if just a bit.
• CBD oil— Now hear me out! CBD oil—I use the Trim Healthy Mama blends—and creams/balms can be VERY helpful to us with chronic issues. The article I linked above talks about how CBD differs from it’s smoky counterpart. For me and my house we use CBD oil as it’s not addictive and actually has health benefits instead of detriments. I’m trying out using THM’s feminine balance blend before bed and I use their Heavy Hitter for during the day pain. The only bad side of CBD is that it can be expensive . . . Good luck!
• Your bed—For me the biggest turning point with my sleep was when I slept on our guest bed for a week. I slept so well!! Turns out my bed wasn’t supported properly. Long story short my memory foam pad was a hand-me-down from my parents king size. I had folded it over to fit my twin size and yeah that wasn’t a good idea. A new pillow top is in my future!
• Tea time—I personally use Chamomile or a sleepy time tea. They don’t work that much for me but sometimes they calm my anxiety enough to help.
• Bedtime routine— All of what I’ve said can be wrapped up neatly into a routine like bow. Our bodies love habits—until they don’t like mine *rolls eyes*—and having a set ish routine thirty minutes before bed can train your brain into going “Oh yeah. Time for sleep now.”

There’s my top advice. To be quite frank with you I struggle to follow my own advice! Mostly because brain fog makes me forgetful. But I’m trying to get a better quality of life.— Aren’t we all?— so I’m trying to get these routines down pact and rolling.

Oh! If you do wash your face before bed—I don’t judge I forget to do it a lot of the time—I would recommend getting a different more soothing face wash than your morning and shower one. Will help your brain realize the difference between your morning routine and your night one!

Question of the day: what do you do to help your body wind down for sleep?

‘Till next we meet.

~Tiffany Michele

P.S. Let’s not forget to pray before sleep too!