I have always slept really well. I was someone who could go to bed, drop off almost instantly and not wake for 14 hours. Not even for a pee! I slept through the gales of 1987 despite a tree falling on top of our car on the street right outside my bedroom. Truly deep sleep.
Then it changed.
I began sharing a bed. I had a baby. And, it seems sometimes, that it has changed irrevocably. And then, every now and then, I get glimpses of how it used to be.
It has been really alarming to find myself, with little to no resource to manage it, in a position where I just can’t get to sleep. Or, I was asleep and now, suddenly, I am not. Or, I have woken early, much earlier than I would have liked and am not falling back to sleep again and already dreading the grotty, dragging feeling of not enough sleep accompanying my day.
Does this sound familiar?
It can feel like absolute torture. Desparate to be asleep, knowing there’s a limit on how much sleeping time is left to me (mother to a small child as well as usual work-day deadlines) and being wide awake but soooo sleepy.
And, I have enough knowledge to know that the impact just one bad night can have on our cortisol rhythm is enough to disturb another night which disturbs another and another and so on.
I have had a fair few nights where I have dreaded going to bed in case I lie awake for hours on end not dropping off… again. So, I drag it out, staying up later and later in the hopes that I will just drop off to sleep because I am so tired.
I would like to share with you my sleep journey. The journey I am travelling still whilst I search for my deep sleep state to return. Much of the inspiration for logging this journey is in order to find the many variations on answers I need to help my patients. If I truly understand sleep and not sleeping, then I can tailor medicines in a meaningful way. A way which deeply understands the sleep needs of each person I work with. And, I get to understand more about myself in the process. Double win!
So, if you would like to travel this journey with me, email HertsHerbalist@hotmail.com to sign up to my mailing list and let’s start looking for your sleep solutions as well as mine.