Poor sleep, part 3. *

It may be difficult to see that every other living thing sleeps when it is "time to sleep", only humans struggle to maintain a healthy rhythm. Our choices are at fault and the busy brain that is easily distracted and always curious.

But if you really value yourself and your health, you will value your sleep over other things. So in case you're struggling with sleep, look at your daily schedule and ask yourself how much of your behavior matches what your body needs?

Our days don't just need light - we also need the darkness - the full package. We need to eat, work, connect with our community and family, we need to move stools, urinate, drink water, walk or run... Good sleep needs all of these things, every day.

Start by looking at what could be missing in your daily behavior. If there is anything mentioned above that you don't do (maybe regular stools or physical movement) add these as soon as you can. It is important to mimick healthy behavior, sometimes you should "fake it until you make it". Your body may need to check all of these boxes before it starts manufacturing good sleep.

If you're already doing the things we were meant to do during the day, look at the stimulants you take. Sugar and caffeine are the most common reasons we have poor sleep. Sugar is not just "refined sugar", sugar is in all carbs, alcohol, fruit and daery. And sugar and caffeine are Yang - the opposite of what your body needs in order to produce good quality sleep.

Coffee is socially accepted so we think it is okay to consume. But we rarely question how it works and realize that as a stimulant coffee effects different people in a different way. So if you are someone who can not sleep if they have a cup of coffee in the afternoon, it is possible that you're the person whose sleep may be negatively affected even if your cup of coffee is served in the morning.

Finally, some people are finding it difficult to sleep even after they tick all the boxes. If you are one of them and nothing else works to deliver a good night of sleep, consider having some acupuncture sessions for sleep. It is possible that your acupuncturist can see things you may not be seeing while tired, frustrated or simply "in the middle of it". Acupuncture is very effective when treating sleep disorders.