Sleep Hygiene

Personally, I didn’t realise the importance of sleep until I was diagnosed with my mental illness. Prior to my psychosis, I was sleeping extremely late and sometimes waking up quite early, so I wasn’t able to get a good amount of hours of sleep. Due to this, I would feel quite lethargic during the day and mentally, I felt under stress because I was never getting a good amount of rest.

Then when I experienced my psychotic episode, I went for a few days without sleeping, AT ALL. At the time, I had the delusion that it if I sleep then it will cause me to eventually die.

Now that I am in my right state of mind, I can see that lack of quality sleep was definitely one of the factors that triggered my psychosis and as they say, it’s never too late to do the right thing.

You may be wondering what exactly sleep hygiene means. Simply put, it means applying good sleeping habits that will help you to improve the quality of your night time sleep.

Bad sleeping habits

Bright LED displays, like going on your phone, computer, watching tc can stimulate our minds more negatively impact our sleep just before bedtime.

Eating food right before sleep can affect a good sleep. Try and stay away from large meals before bedtime.

Avoid stimulants like caffeine which can hinder your sleep. Coffee, tea even chocolate has caffeine in which can disturb your sleeping patterns.

Nicotine and alcohol can also affect our sleep. Alcohol is known to speed the onset of sleep however it can cause arousal on the second half of our sleep as the body begins to metabolise the alcohol.

Stress/ anxiety can cause you to have a bad sleep. Try and avoid upsetting concversations or actives before going to sleep. Try and not dwell on issues/problems you may have to your bed.

Good sleeping habits

Develop a relaxing bedtime routine. It could include doing something calming like listen to relaxing music or have a warm bath.

Praying before you go to bed can put your mind at ease. Telling God about your day and anything that is bothering you. “Cast your burdens unto Jesus for He cares for you.

Reading a book before bed can help you sleep well.

Exercising can be beneficial for you sleep. Doing more of a physical activity will make you physically tied. E..g a simple activity like house work, gardening, going for a walk.

Making your sleep environment comfortable. For example experiment with the temperature of the room, if you require fewer blankets of more, levels of light and levels of noise. This varies from person to person.

All thesis habits can be helpful in having a good and healthy sleep routine.

I’ll leave you with this text: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you. whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19.

This text means that your body belongs to God so our role is to care for God’s temple and that involves getting a good sleep routine.