Would you rather watch a sunrise or count the midnight stars?
If you had to wake up at 6:00am, would you look and feel more like Mary Poppins or Oscar the Grouch?
Are your creative energy levels and optimistic zeal booming, when you pop out of bed in the morning or when everyone else has gone to bed for the night?
A night owl or an evening person is one who tends to stay up until late at night, or to the early hours of the morning or just takes naps through the night, struggling to fall back to sleep.
According to WebMD “ 20% of people experience this type of insomnia.”
Lets imagine your body and brain as the Grand Central Station NYC, The big clock tower’s time always matches the train conductors’ times, which also matches all the computers’ times and each passenger’s watch, all are in tandem with each other and things run smoothly, this is known as the Circadian System.
But one day if that big clock tower’s time would just randomly change and nobody could be confident that they knew what time it was. Imagine the chaos at the train station!
So when your body and brain are not in sync at night, the brain is active and the body needs rest, it creates turmoil.
Things to do daily as prep for the night:
Getting a good nights rest begins well before bedtime.
: Daily exercise is important.
: Meditate, pray or listen to calming music or light reading.
: Avoid caffeinated drinks post 4pm.
: Alcohol consumption works for some, know that nightcaps usually induce only temporary sleep.
: Empty your bladder.
: Manage disruptions of street light and noise by drawing black out curtains, use ear plugs if comfortable with it or try using modern inventions of pink noise, white noise playing through the night, this helps light sleepers who are sensitive to sound.
Things to do when the owl calls:
Give yourself a good twenty minutes to fall back asleep.
During those twenty minutes, try the old fashioned tips of counting sheep, counting numbers backwards or even better concentrating on the rhythm of your breathe.
If the twenty-minute window fails, get out of bed move to another room. Keep your bed only for sleep and sex.
Lighting should always be soft to wind down.
Do some light reading, meditation or deep breathing.
One can also activate and stretch ones muscles. Start from your head to your toes and follow a clench-hold–release pattern for each muscle group, this will tire you out.
Definitely avoid looking at your phone or any screen; the blue light is a trigger for the brain.
As tempted, as you are to check the time, DON’T! It’s a stress inducer.
Very important – climb back into bed only when you feel sleepy again.
Foods that induce sleep:
Tryptophan, a sleep-promoting chemical is found in milk, nuts, seeds, bananas, honey and eggs.
Carbohydrate-rich foods at dinner also act as a lullaby.
A light late night snack is advised as an empty stomach or hunger pangs do disrupt sleep.
Avoid spicy, high fat foods they cause acidity and heartburn.
Lesson: don’t stress or over think.
Even normal sleep can be punctuated by periods of restlessness or even waking. Be patient! Sleep usually returns. Remember, a few nights of poor sleep do no long-term harm. Even if you toss and turn trying to get to sleep, you are probably getting more periods of sleep than you think.
Finally, It’s all the ways you think, feel and act that makes you well. It’s your habits, quirks and how you react to the world around you. Even though your moods change and you learn and grow over the years, there’s still a certain you-ness to it all.
Sleepless nights are a health condition that can affect your personality and make you act in ways that are out of character for you.
So when you feeling edgy, frustrated, exasperated here’s a lullaby for when the owl calls:
OWL’S LULLABY by Shimona
I can’t sleep so I’ll sing you a song and if you want, you can sing along.
It’s quite simple, it’s what owls do when night falls we don’t sleep,
We sing hoo hoo hoo…….
The owl’s sweet lullaby I’ll sing to you.
