Kelley Counseling and Wellness

Thus far we have touched on developing a sleep schedule and a before bed routine so you are really ready to fall asleep when your head hits the pillow. But what if you are doing these two things already but still having trouble falling sleep? If you get in bed and it takes more than twenty minutes to fall asleep you should get back out of bed. That might sound counter intuitive but there is a good reason to do so, a couple in fact.  First your body and mind need to associate your bed as a place of rest and relaxation. Likely if you have been struggling with sleep your bed may consciously or subconsciously be associated with stress, exhaustion, anxiety, or frustration. To help break that association you need to be sleeping while in your bed rather than laying awake wishing you could sleep. So after twenty minutes if you are still awake, get up.  Now that you are up you need to do something slow down and relax so when you return to bed you can sleep. Maybe that would be rea

Last week we touched on the importance of developing a sleep schedule. That is a great place to start but that is not the only thing that will help you get the healthy sleep you need.  Developing an evening time routine that helps with winding down can also be very beneficial. This will look different for different people, the important part is to develop a routine that works for you. Individuals that are struggling with not being able to "turn off" their brain to fall asleep may benefit most from developing a wind down routine. Do you need to start winding down 30 minutes before bed? An hour? Two hours?  Find what works for you, it might take some time to find that sweet spot but it can make a big difference in the quality of sleep that you get.  As I said this will look different for each person but here are some ideas to get you started: - take a hot shower - do some light stretching - bedtime yoga practice ( here 's a great 7 minute

In this mini-series we will explore strategies that can improve sleep. One thing my colleagues and I hear often is that people are struggling with sleep. Sleep is essential to functioning at ones best! So if you aren't getting the sleep you need, you aren't able to be the healthiest version of yourself. Sleep impacts many aspects of mental and physical wellbeing, from metabolism to judgment to immune system health. WHERE TO START? Develop a sleep schedule! Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day will strengthen your body's natural tendency to regulate your sleep-wake cycle. This means that on weekends, weekdays, vacations, etc. you should be going to bed at relatively the same time and waking up at relatively the same time. Once you have started purposefully trying to do this you will eventually notice that you start to become tired at that predetermined bedtime and you will start waking up without that alarm because you body has learned the patter