Can't sleep - but I bet you already know how to do this ONE essential thing

Before I went to sleep - I used to strip off, jump in and pass out. Then life happened. Kids, work, responsibility and I just got busier. The only time I got to think at all was when my head hit the pillow. Unfortunately for me, this is also when your stress can spike as well. You know that horrible feeling and it can be very hard to relieve stress at night.

You've been fine all day. Jump into bed and suddenly your anxiety is massive. Asking yourself why you feel this while having the first moment to yourself? Anyway, turns out one of the reasons is you have been going at such a pace that you haven’t given your brain space all day. So it's a bit overwhelming when you lie down to sleep. And this is very common. Many people use weighted orthopedic pillows that cure restlessness also known as therapy pillows for sleep disorders in adults.

1. It wasn't just me. That was rather lovely to know. I liked knowing that I was not the only one in need of some therapeutic sleep aid. 

Then came the loop thinking about “millions and millions of things I needed to do. This was really hard to stop. The way for me to turn it off was to pick up my phone to distract.

People say, “write a list”. I find this incredibly unhelpful. 1. Do you not think I have a list already? And 2. This absolutely didn’t work for me as I would start solving each problem/ task as I wrote them. So actually, the process created a whole new world to stay awake thinking about.

Also, a voice in my head when someone tells me to “just write a list” do this is - mini rage explosion - why don’t you write a list. I needed to relax my mind and not feed it with interesting problems. Turns out lots of people think like me on this. 

BUT by looking at my phone I was actually self-soothing. This is what children do when they suck their thumbs or use a teddy or hum.

By looking at my phone, I was focusing on something to take my mind away from things I couldn't control while in bed in the middle of the night. The only problem is I was focusing on stuff that is the opposite of useful. 

2. I already knew how to SELF soothe. So two things, I’m not the only person who gets stressed when I lie in bed, and two, I am able to self-soothe - just not really in a way that helps. 

Look you're probably thinking - why didn't you just change your habits? Habits are crazy hard to change. The fact that you’re reading this shows you are trying. But if you're at the beginning of changing your sleep habits, it will take a lot for you to break your habits. At Siest Sleep we help our customers create good sleeping habits with our weighted pillows which improve deep sleep and improve REM sleep.

How willing are you to give up those routines that you've been training yourself to do for so long? The habit of drinking coffee all day.

The habit of not winding down, the habit of not planning your sleep in the day. The habit of saying you can’t sleep. Jumping straight to mindfulness can be positively heart-attack-inducing if you've never done it. 

Personally, I used to love having a teddy bear and I love hugs so I figured something that combined them would be pretty cool. So now I take the easy route. Weighted body pillows are perfect for hugging at night and really help with insomnia.

I hide my phone away in another room (yes I bought the basic alarm clock) and I hug a sleeper. I place it on my chest. I breathe slowly. Until I stop fighting the fact that I’m breathing slowly. :-) Then turn on my side and hug it in close. 

This blog piece is a simple sleep start. A start to remind yourself you’re not alone and also you actually already know how to self soothe. Try to swap out the phone for something that will spark some sleep. At Siest Sleep one of the many advantages of weighted pillows is that they are in actual fact medicinal pillows to help you relax.

I don't know how to help everyone's sleep challenges, but I do know what worked for me. What is consistently working for our customers. Also, I like uncomplicated things. Simple, useful, beautiful, uncomplicated. Ethically made even better.