Sleep is the number one predictor of health outcomes–both physical and mental health outcomes. The World Health Organization has identified sleep deprivation as an epidemic in industrialized countries. If everyone just got enough sleep (7 to 9 hours a night, depending on the person), the world would be a much saner place. This video reminds you how to embrace the bedtime routine as a sleep ritual to promote restorative sleep. Other benefits to restorative sleep–even napping–include enhanced learning, memory and creativity!
The Sleep System
The Sleep System: 28 Days to Better Sleep takes a design thinking approach to enlisting a series of simple Sleep Rituals to help you build a healthy foundation for restorative sleep. Though many people think of quality sleep in terms of sensory deprivation, creatives tend to be ‘orient-ers’–strongly grounded in their surroundings and the five senses. The Sleep System takes advantage of the five senses to immerse you in embodied sleep rituals that invoke neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to rewire to learn to associate sensory cues with sleep. The Sleep System’s 28-Day eBook and Journal guides participants in noting the effects of each new sleep habit.
Sleep Meditations
If you find a progressive sleep relaxation helpful, click the highlighted text to link to the Meditation Oasis podcast. Explore and enjoy several sleep meditations!
Sleep vs. Rest
Sleep is the body’s irreplaceable detoxification process; it is the only form of rest that brings the brain and body back to homeostasis. However, mental and emotional fatigue may persist. If you are getting seven to nine hours of sleep but you still don’t feel restored, according to this article by Dr. Saundra Dalton Smith, you may be missing other forms of [active] rest. There are seven kinds of rest, says Dr. Dalton Smith. Some of her suggestions–movement, journaling, a biophilia break–are micro practices found here in the AD Wellness Toolkit and The Sleep System!
1:1 Sleep Coaching
If you would like to be guided through The Sleep System’s 28-Day Journey to Design the Sleep You Love, yogaXdesign offers 1:1 sleep coaching to help you design an effective sleep routine that accommodates your unique lifestyle. I take an integrative approach to your circumstances, habits and mindset surrounding sleep as I guide you through 28 Days of Sleep Renewal. My Sleep System employs a design thinking approach called Deconstruction:Reconstruction to dismantle deconstruct poor sleep habits and reconstruct a healthy sleep hygiene.