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Relearning Some Important Sleep Hygiene Skills

22 September 2015

Allison read some of her past posts to help herself relearn some important sleep hygiene skills as she’s struggled with a new sleep challenge.

Tags: allison read, balance, sleep

I do what I can to help people prioritize sleep. I believe (and research supports) that being rested is one of the best things you can do to improve your overall health and well-being. It also makes it easier to manage all the messy, complicated, wonderful people stuff we help people with at Allison Partners.

Earlier this month I had LASIK surgery to correct severe myopia, or nearsightedness (difficulty seeing distant objects as clearly as near objects). To put my vision challenge in perspective, my surgeon said that he had not corrected vision as bad as mine in over a year. Happily, the surgery was a success, and I’m healing well.

In addition to the overall discomfort and lots of eye drops, being able to see has led to a problem I didn’t anticipate. I’m having trouble sleeping. I’m more alert at the end of the day when I normally try to wind down for the night. Being able to see the TV with such clarity is a new and exciting novelty. Being able to see when I wake up in the middle night feels so miraculous that I find myself suddenly alert, fascinated by what the world looks like at night when I can see without putting on glasses.

Adjusting to my new sight is a problem I’m delighted to have, but it means I’ve had to return to two important sleep hygiene practices I covered in this post. The first is making a special effort to put myself to bed. I’ve learned that taking out my contacts at the end of the night and actually not being able to see much without my glasses was a significant part of my winding down ritual. I’m having to remember to turn off the TV earlier rather than reveling in my new vision. I don’t fall asleep as quickly and gently as I used to so I’m having to talk myself into shutting down earlier in the evening so I have more time to read a bit and talk myself into going to bed.

Additionally, I’m having to do the deep breathing exercise I describe in this post (I’m breathing in, I’m breathing out, I am relaxing) to help myself go back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night. Being able to see is still such a novelty that my mind gets a little excited and starts to rev up for a day that shouldn’t start just yet. I have to close my eyes pretty quickly and talk to myself about the fact that I actually want a few more hours of sleep rather than succumbing to the temptation to catch up on email or some other tempting sort of productivity. If that doesn’t work, I have to do my breathing exercise to help myself go back to sleep.

Slowly, but surely, I’m getting back into the groove of a good night’s sleep, but these last three weeks have been an important reminder of the discipline it takes to practice good sleep hygiene. Some nights I have been less successful than others and being more tired than usual has reaffirmed my belief that life is a lot easier when I’m rested. However, I’d forgotten just how much effort it can take to get the sleep I need. What do you need to do to make sleep a priority?

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