Blog Page
You can follow my blog at http://roystonhypnotherapy.blogspot.com
Recent postings: Three_Gifts, Time for a Positive_Change, The_Kings_Speech, Healthy Weight Loss, Holiday Heaven or Hell?, Good_News_for_Hypnotherapists, Emotions and Weight Loss, Sleep Well!, Sleep Well - Top Tips, Sleep Well - Top Tips for Women, Spring Clean Your Life! Performance Matters, Growing Pains, Mind Over Matter, Happy Easter, Archers to Ashes, Successful Revision, If I can, you can, Seve Ballesteros - Motivating a genius, Stress_at_Work, The Importance of Control, Planning for a Happy Retirement, Hypnosis & the NHS, Confident You! How Stressed Are You?, Stop Snoring!, Dealing with Horrible Bosses, Beating Emotional Vampires, Confessions of a Running Beginner, New Research on Weight Loss, Frightened of Fruit, How's your blood pressure?, Beat the Winter Blues, A Festive Recipe, Beat the Winter Blues Update, Good Resolutions The Best Medicine, And sleep...
And sleep....
When people find out that I am a hypnotherapist one of the most common problems that they want to talk to me about is sleep. They either can’t get off to sleep or they wake up during the night or they wake up unrefreshed. Good sleep is so important for our physical and mental health and that’s why I frequently blog about the subject.
I also run a one day workshop on getting better sleep. I was preparing for one of these workshops last week and I was looking for any new material or research. I came across this beautiful piece of music by Eric Whitacre on TED Talks called ‘Sleep’. The music and the words are so lovely I wanted to share it. http://blog.ted.com/2011/04/08/watch-sleep-eric-whitacres-new-work-with-2000-voices/
Enjoy!
Today, 16 January, is said to be the most depressing day of the year. Well, I know it’s Monday, but the sun is shining and it feels like a good start to the week.
As human beings we are hardwired to look at the bright side of life even if the evidence around us suggests that the future is not looking so good. Optimism is part of our strategy for survival and helps us to deal with financial problems, health issues and worries about our children.
This could be the reason why laughter is so good for us. It reduces stress hormones such as cortisol and releases health enhancing hormones, such as endorphins, into the bloodstream that help to heal, rejuvenate and renew our bodies. It can also strengthen our immune system.
Laughter can be contagious – in a good way. The brain responds to the sound of laughter by preparing the face to laugh and smile. If you laugh, the chances are that people around you will relax and laugh too. So just by laughing you can improve your own mental and physical health and the wellbeing of the people you live and work with.
What would make you have a good laugh today? Do you have a favourite funny movie or TV programme that you could watch? Or is there a book that really makes you laugh? I remember the first time that I read The Diary of Adrian Mole I was incapacitated with laughter. Even better, could you sit down with some family or friends and remember some happy, funny memories?
Whatever you do today, take your medicine – have a good laugh!
- Close your eyes and visualise what you want. State it in the positive eg “I want to be a size 12”, “I want to breathe easily”, “I want to spend two hours a week exercising”.
- What will you see, hear and feel when you achieve your goal?
- When do you want to achieve it by? eg a specific date or special occasion.
- What resources do you already have? What resources do you need?
- What options do you have to help you achieve your goal?
- Do you need any advice or support?
- What actions are you going to take?
- What obstacles might you experience? How might you overcome them?
- Tell someone else what you are going to do or
- Join a group with the same goals
- If you move off of the plan one day, forgive yourself and start again
A couple of weeks ago I suggested taking a walk at lunchtime to get some midday sunlight and some healthy exercise. We already know that exercise has significant benefits for mood and energy levels and has the potential for managing addictions. Now there’s an even better reason to go for a walk.
According to research published by the University of Exeter, a 15 minute walk can cut your snacking at work by a half. The researchers invited 78 regular chocolate eaters to abstain from chocolate for2 days and then enter a simulated work environment. They were asked to take a brisk 15 minute walk on a treadmill and then they divided into four groups. The first group was given an easy, low-stress task and the second was given a more difficult task. The other two groups were asked to have a rest before being given the same tasks as the first two groups. Chocolate was freely available to all the teams.
The groups who had exercised before working ate on average half the amount of chocolate eaten by the others. The difficulty of the task made no difference to the amount of chocolate they consumed.
Professor Adrian Taylor, lead researcher, said: “We know that snacking on high calorie foods, like chocolate, at work can become a mindless habit and can lead to weight gain over time. We often feel that these snacks give us an energy boost, or help us deal with the stress of our jobs, including boredom. People often find it difficult to cut down on their daily treats but this study shows that by taking a short walk, they are able to regulate their intake by half.”
You can read more at http://www.sciencedaily.com Dec 7 2011
We had a lovely autumn with lots of warm sunny days but now the clocks have gone back and the days are getting shorter. Whether or not you suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) you may find yourself feeling tired, overeating and experiencing periods of low mood. 
Lack of light during the mid-winter season causes an increase in the production of melatonin (the hormone that makes us sleepy at night), and a reduction of serotonin, the lack of which can lead to low mood.
If you do have symptoms of SAD, you could consider trying Bright Light Treatment using a specialist light box. These lights provide summertime levels of light and have been shown to be effective in up to 85% of diagnosed cases. Light boxes are not available on the NHS and have to be bought from specialist retailers. They are free from VAT when used for medical purposes.
If your symptoms are relatively mild, there are other things you can do. Firstly, take a 30 minute walk outside around the middle of the day. The exercise will make you feel better and you can get the best of the daylight. Secondly, do something that makes you laugh for five minutes three times a day as this will help to boost your levels of serotonin. Thirdly, to boost your levels of wellbeing, keep a notebook of the ‘gifts’ you receive every day. These don’t have to be big things, they can just be the little things like seeing a beautiful sunrise, a smile from a colleague or a cup of tea that’s been made for you.
For more information and advice on SADA see www.sada.org.uk
From Good to Great - Tips from a Master
As a Life Coach and Sports Mind Coach I am always interested in learning from other people who I admire. Last weekend I listened to a recording of Robert Fripp, the legendary King Crimson guitarist, speaking at the National Speakers Association in America. He was talking about the principles of moving from being good to being great. In fact, he says you have to move from bad to good before you can move to great! 
Although he is talking about mastery of the guitar, there is plenty in what he says that is true for anyone who wants to achieve mastery in any field. He sets out 7 steps:
- Have an aim. Having an aim helps to guide your actions. Fripp’s aim at 11 years old was to be the best guitarist in the world.
- Find someone who has been there before and is willing to teach you. That can be an instructor or mentor or teacher. Normally it will be someone who is one rung above you in terms of mastery and as soon as you are as good as them you need to find the person at the next level.
- Get out of bed. You need plenty of time to work and practice
- Practice. Remember to listen to yourself when you practice. Notice what you are doing and make a record of it so that you can learn from it.
- Work with people who are better than you. That gives you a chance to learn and one day you may get an opportunity to stand in for them.
- Work a lot. If work is not coming to you, go and find work.
- When you are unemployed or ‘resting’, keep practicing. That way you will be ready when the chance comes along
I think those steps apply to most skills. There is a theory that you need to practice for 10,000 to attain mastery of any skill. I suspect Fripp has well exceeded that.
A final thought from Robert Fripp:
“In strange and uncertain times…sometimes a reasonable person may despair. But hope is unreasonable and love is even greater than this. May we trust the creative impulse.”
Did you know that high blood pressure (hypertension) affects 1 in 3 people worldwide and accounts for 20-25% of all deaths. That’s over 16 Million people in the UK, and 50 million people in the USA. In over 90% of cases there is no identifiable cause and, in over 50 % of cases, people are unaware that they have it.
Blood pressure is the force need to maintain the circulation of blood through your body. Ideal blood pressure is around 115/75. Hypertension is divided into two classes that is primary or essential hypertension which has no known cause (over 90% of cases), and secondary hypertension which arises from a disease or medical condition eg sleep apnoea, sodium retention, excess cortisol, narrowing of the aorta, endocrine disorders and pre-eclampsia.
There are a number of lifestyle factors that can contribute to hypertension such as:
- obesity/diabetes
- lack of exercise
- excess salt
- excess alcohol
- smoking and
- some prescription and non-prescription drugs.
There are other factors related to stress which can impact on blood pressure such as
- feeling loss of control
- feeling burdened
- unresolved anger
- inner conflict and
- fear of death/illness.
So, if you’ve been diagnosed with hypertension/high blood pressure what can you do? Well, if you’ve been given medication by your doctor, keep taking it. Then look at the lifestyle factors and think whether any of them apply to you and what you could change. If you relate to any of the stress factors you might need to get some help from a complementary practitioner.
If you think that you might have high blood pressure then go and see your doctor and get it checked out .
Frightened of Fruit?
There was an interesting programme on ITV2 last weekend called ‘My Child Won’t Eat’. The programme followed the treatment of three children who were being treated by a psychologist, Dr Gillian Harris. All of the children were refusing to eat ‘normal’ food along with the rest of their families. Instead they were eating the sorts of food that parents normally reserve for treats for example chocolate, biscuits, cereals and yoghurt.
Dr Harris believes that the children have phobias relating to certain foods which means that they are actually scared to eat them. The normal encouragement and cajoling just doesn’t work in this situation.
This type of phobia can carry on into adulthood and this can have an adverse effect on nutrition, growth and healthy weight control. I have worked with weight loss clients who find it hard to eat fruit and vegetables.
So what can you do if you have a food phobia and want to increase the range of food that you eat? Dr Harris’s approach is to encourage her clients to start by identifying one need food that they are prepared to try to eat. Relax before meal times and picture yourself eating the new food in a completely calm state. Then, eat a small portion of the new food. On average you need to eat a new food about 15 times before it becomes familiar and easy to eat.
Most of all, make mealtimes enjoyable and stress free.
Sometimes when you hear about a new piece of research that has been published you wonder how they ever got the funding to look into something so whacky or something that just seems like common sense. But there have been a few interesting papers published recently on w
eight loss
Dr David Hall of the US National Institutes for Health and his colleagues have published research in The Lancet about realistic rates of weight loss (http://bit.ly/o0i6AZ ). In their report they say that general advice has been that if you cut 500 calories from your daily diet or burn them off through exercise you can expect to lose 1lb (0.5kg) of weight every week. However, they say, that it takes longer to lose weight and a year of dieting will result in only half the amount of weight that experts currently predict. Because of that, many people give up because they have unrealistic expectations.
An unusual study by Ohio State University has shown that a socially active lifestyle can dramatically speed up weight loss through the burning of fat in mice (http://bbc.in/nJH2Vv) . The team found that relatively small changes in the physical and social living environment of the mice can alter vast amounts of white fat to brown fat which is easier to burn off. Professor During said that "it is not the size of your social network, but its depth and complexity, and your level of engagement with that network, that counts.”
Radio 4’s ‘All in the Mind’ programme on 5 October, featured research by Dr David Neill of the University of South Carolina into the effect of bad eating habits. Their research studied habitual popcorn eaters at a cinema. They found that participants ate out of habit, regardless of the freshness of the popcorn. The habit can be broken by asking the participant to eat with their non-dominant hand, that is, if they normally eat with their right hand, change to their left hand. That change, known as a ‘pattern interrupt’ in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), gives the participant a chance to make the conscious decision about whether they want to carry on eating.
So what are the implications if you want to lose weight? Firstly, set yourself realistic weight loss targets and stick at it - healthy eating is for life not just for New Year’s resolutions. Having an active social life with lots of face to face interactions is good for your emotional health and will help you to lose weight. And finally, you can break harmful eating habits by making small changes like eating with your non-dominant hand or moving snacks to a new drawer or cupboard in the kitchen.
Confessions of a Running Beginner
Regular exercise is important to me as part of my overall fitness and wellbeing. I get bored easily so I try to have a selection of types of exercises that I can choose from. I vary between the gym, swimming, Pilates and using the Wii.
I had never been interested in running until some friends told me about the NH
S Couch to 5k programme. It is an audio running plan that you can download from http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/couch-5K-running-plan.aspx It takes complete running beginners to running for 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks.
What I like about this programme is that as well as the 5k goal, there are goals for each week so you get lots of opportunity to achieve and feel good about your progress. There’s also good music to run to and positive reinforcement from Laura who encourages and congratulates you as you go along.
I’ve really enjoyed jogging around the area where I live during the summer months. What I have had to overcome is the negative thoughts that come into my head when I’m running such as ‘You don’t have to do this – you could turn around now’ and ‘You’ll never run for 25 minutes’ and ‘Aren’t you too old for this now?’ Fortunately, as a sports mind coach, I know that these thoughts aren’t true and that there’s lots of techniques I can use to overcome them. The important thing to do is to acknowledge the thought and understand that it is just a belief that you can change.
I can now run for 30 minutes but I haven’t reached 5k yet so there is still a goal to achieve. So, come on Laura – let’s get those running shoes on!
I listened to a webinar at the weekend with the Barefoot Doctor, Stephen Russell interviewing Dr David Hamilton. If you have never come across David, he is a truly interesting and lovely person. He is a scientist who started his career in the pharmaceutical industry, researching the placebo effect in the development of new drugs for heart disease and cancer. He is now a bestselling 
author and he travels the world offering workshops to help people understand the power of the mind on the body. He has a great sense of humour and is able to make complex concepts very accessible.
During the webinar he talked about a range of subjects including neuroscience, meditation, dealing with negative thinking, spirituality and past life. He was also asked about how to protect yourself against other people with unhealthy states of mind and ‘emotional vampires’.
David said that everyone is susceptible to catching other people’s emotions, both positive and negative. This is known as the ‘Chameleon Effect’ and occurs when we start to mirror another person both physically and emotionally.
So what do you do if you start to get sucked in to a negative state? David’s tip to get out of it is to change your body language by scrambling your facial muscles, put your shoulders back, open your chest and take a deep breath. When you’ve done that you can start to project your positive energy onto the other person.
If you feel that someone is draining you of energy you can follow the same steps and, as you breathe out, express peace, positivity and inner strength.
Well, it beats wearing garlic around your neck!
The recently released comedy film, Horrible Bosses, proposes an extreme solution for dealing with a boss who bullies you, makes sexual advances or is just incompetent. The three friends coping with these horrible bosses are unable to quit their jobs so theyplot to kill them. Inevitabl
y their plans go wrong but, being a movie, it all truns out well in the end.
If you are having problems with your manager at work, you’re not alone. In a survey by MIND earlier in the year, respondents identified work as their highest source of stress and 48% were scared to take time off sick. 20% believed that if they mentioned their stress levels to their boss they would be first in line for redundancy. So what can you do?
If you are being bullied, you should check your company’s policies on bullying in the workplace. Is there a Trade Union or Staff Association that you can consult? Is there a welfare officer that you can talk to in confidence. If you are strating to get symptoms of stress (eg palpitations, higher blood pressure, poor sleep, loss of appetite etc) you may need to talk to your doctor or another health professional.
There are a couple of simple NLP techniques that you could try to reduce the impact of the experience. If, when you think about your boss, you see an image of him/her that is big and close to you, try making that image smaller, turn it black and white and push the image as far away from you as possible so that it becomes less and less important. To completely get rid of the feeling, you can add a red nose, Mickey Mouse ears and a spinning bow the to the image
For some people, when they think about their boss, they hear their voice loud and close to them making derogatory remarks. If you experience that, move that voice further away by reaching out your arm and putting the voice at the tip of your thumb. For extra effect change the sound of the voice to Mickey Mouse - it will definitely feel less serious!
Beat the Munchies
When I was at Royston Open Secrets a month ago, several people talked to me about weight issues and the problem of ‘snacking’. Snacks can be a real problem if you are trying to lose weight, as things like crisps and chocolate add unwanted calories.
My first question to anyone with a snacking problem is “Are you eating because you are physically hungry of emotionally hungry?” Physical hunger comes on slowly and is associated with tiredness, stomach pangs and lowering of energy levels, . Emotional hunger comes on suddenly and isn’t satisfied by food, in fact you might feel sick after you’ve eaten.
If you think you are physically hungry, try drinking a glass of water. The signals from the brain that tell you that you are hungry are similar to those for thirst so it’s a good idea to check which it is. After you’ve had a drink, leave it 20 minutes and if you still think you are hungry, eat something healthy like a banana or some dried fruit. It’s a good idea not to let yourself get too hungry between meals because, if you do, you are more likely to want to eat carbohydrates when you do eat.
Emotional hunger is associated with feelings such as boredom, frustration, anger and sadness. When I worked in a large office, if I started to get bored, I would wander off to the vending machine for a chocolate bar. I would often eat it before I got back to my desk and I still felt bored – and a bit sick!
So, if you get a sudden onset of hunger, stop and take a few deep breaths, making the out breath a bit longer than the in breath. Acknowledge the emotion that you are experiencing and stay with it for a few moments noticing how it changes. If it’s possible, go for a short walk, preferably outside so that you can focus on nature. If it’s not possible to take a break then just close your eyes for a moment and think about your favourite image making the image as clear and colourful and detailed as you can. Once the negative emotion is reduced the compulsion to eat should reduce too.
If you do eat a snack, make sure that it is something you enjoy and always sit down and eat it consciously and slowly.
Give it a try.
Is there anything more annoying than being awake in the middle of the night - listening to your partner snoring? They sound like they are really enjoying being asleep and you feel so miserable! Apparently nearly three quarters of all partners sleep apartregularly because one or both partners snore (Woman's Hour 30th June)
If you are being kept awake by snoring it is important to find a solution both for your relationship and your health. Sleep deprivation over a prolonged period can have a devastating effects mentally and physically.
There are a number of options for treatment, some of which are less intrusive than others, including devices to wear in your mouth, nose plasters, chin straps, throat sprays, laser treatment and ear plugs for the listener.
There is an on line snoring test that you can do at http://www.britishsnoring.co.uk This helps you to find out what sort of snorer you are and discover appropriate treatments.
As a hypnotherapist I work with both the snorer and the listener. I help the former with hypnotic suggestions about breathing easier and I help the latter with suggestions about relaxing and not noticing the sound. And sometimes that sound can be comforting because it means that your partner is safely asleep beside you.
I read an interesting quote from Nancy dell’Olio in an article in The Independent at the weekend. She said “Since I was a little child in Italy, people have looked at me, and not just because I’m beautiful; it’s something that comes from inside me. I know I’m fascinating…I’m a very loved person.” How fantastic to be that sure of yourself – even if most of us would feel a bit uncomfortable about saying it.
- Does the therapist welcome any questions and answer them fully?
- Is the therapist qualified and insured?
- Not guarantee recovery and tell you if she/he can't help?
- Are they open about their fees?
Planning for a Happy Retirement
There’s a lot of advice available about pensions and planning financially for retirement. There’s a lot less about planning for a healthy and happy retirement. Obviously it’s important to plan so that you have enough money when you retire but it’s important to plan for the other aspects as well.
There was an interesting item on Radio 4’s “All in the Mind” programme last week. It concerned a recent study by Dr Tim Rees from Exeter University who has been looking at the effect of different types of feedback on the performance of sportsmen and women.
Seve Ballesteros - Motivating a Genius
It was sad to hear last week about the death of Seve Ballesteros at the age of 54. Ballesteros won 87 tournaments around the world, including three Opens and two Masters and a record 50 victories on the European Tour alone. In the process he became the leader of a pack of golfers who changed the face of the game. As well as being brilliant he could also make mistakes and recover from them by playing unbelievable shots and that endeared him to golfers at all levels.
I am always interested to know what motivates top sportsmen and women because being successful at that level takes thousands of hours of practice. His caddy, Dave Mosgrove, talking on BBC Radio 4, said that Seve hated losing at anything. As a young player, if he lost a game, he would go to bed and read a book and not eat. The pain and anguish he inflicted on himself for not succeeding drove him to win.
Now, some people are motivated by moving towards pleasure (the carrot) while others are motivated by moving away from pain (the stick). It would seem that Seve was an 'away from pain' person who did not take so much pleasure from his amazing successes.
Whether you are a 'carrot' or 'stick' person, the important thing is to keep learning from your experiences. There is always more to learn from the times that don't go so well but even in success you can still think "What have I learned?" What will I do better next time?" That is a real motivator.
I have just spent the weekend on a Winning Mind Coaching course taught by Trevor Silvester of the Quest Institute. I knew it was going to involve juggling and, as someone who has trouble with coordination, balance and catching a ball, I knew it was going to be a challenge.
Regular listeners to the Archers will know that Jolene, the landlady of The Bull, is trying to give up smoking but is not doing very well. Part of the problem is her motivation – or lack of it. Her new boyfriend, Kenton, is the person who wants her to give up and is bribing her with a trip to Monte Carlo.
“For the illusion to work patients place their hand inside a box containing a camera, which then projects the image in realtime onto a screen in front of them. The subject then sees their arthritic fingers being apparently stretched and shrunk by someone gently pushing and pulling from the other side of the box.”
Twenty volunteers diagnosed with arthritic pain in their hands and fingers were recruited by the University to test out the process.
“Before starting the test they were asked to rate their pain from 0-20, with 0 indicating no pain and 20 representing the most unbearable pain they could imagine....The study showed a marked reduction in pain - on average halving the discomfort for 85 per cent of volunteers. Some reported greater reduction in pain for stretching, some for shrinking and some for both.
The pain reduction worked only when painful parts of the hand were "manipulated" and for a third of the volunteers it temporarily eliminated the pain altogether. Anecdotally, many volunteers also reported an increased range of movement. The results will be reported in the next edition of the medical journal, Rheumatology.” (Anthony Bartram, BBC 2011)
Our minds find it hard to differentiate between what we physically experience and what we see or visualise. There are a number of NLP and hypnosis techniques that work on this principle. Using visualisation as part of a therapy, I can help clients to change their experience of pain and improve their physical performance.
overwhelming. Yesterday I rushed out into the garden to mow the lawn, pull out the weeds and prune the bushes. All that pushing, pulling and bending without doing any warm-up exercises inevitably leads to aches and pains the next day. Sounds familiar?
Performance Matters
I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the England Cricket Team, and as any supporter of
any England sports team knows, it's a real emotional roller coaster ride. One day you're celebrating the Ashes win and thinking that they've finally got a winning team. The next day you're watching in disbelief as they get beaten by Ireland. You know that all of them are talented sportsmen and you've seen them turn out fantastic performances. You know that as a Team they can work brilliantly together as a unit and look unbeatable. So what goes wrong?
The Cognitive Hypnotherapist, Trevor Silvester, says that there is a misconception about the nature of 'genius’ in sport. Rather than saying some sports people are geniuses, it would be more correct to say that some, like Kevin Pietersen, have a genius and sometimes you see it in action and sometimes you don't. So what can you do to make that more consistent? And if you enjoy your own sport, how can you improve your own performance?
Sportsmen and women work hard on their physical fitness and many work now on their mental fitness. That's not just about having a positive approach to competing and winning. Bearing in mind that over 90% of our actions are governed by our unconscious minds, there are many other aspects of performance you can work on using NLP techniques to:
to notice the dust on all the flat surfaces in your home and the film that’s built up on the windows and mirrors. Suddenly it feels like a good idea to get out the dusters and the polish to give the house back its sparkle.Sleep Well - Top Tips for Women
Women going through the menopause can find their sleep pattern interupted by hot flushes and/or night sweats. So here are some special tips for you if you are experiencing these symptoms:
1. Before going to bed:
a. Don’t eat spicy or sugary food in the evening. Limit alcohol, chocolate and caffeine
b. Have a warm, non-caffeine drink. If you like a milky drink, use soya milk
c. Enjoy a warm bath or shower
So, we know that sleep is good for our physical and mental health but how do you get a good night's sleep? Here are 10 top tips:
1. Establish a regular sleep pattern. We need, on average, 7 - 9 hours of sleep per night. Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day will help you to feel more refreshed and energised. If you know that you tend to doze off after dinner or in front of the TV, change your routine to do an activity that keeps you awake until bedtime.
2. Make your bedroom a sleep haven. For the best sleep, make sure your bedroom is cool and well ventilated. If you are sensitive to light, invest in a black-out blind for your bedroom window. Keep office equipment out of the bedroom. Don't be tempted to keep your work Blackberry on the bedside table. Keep the bedroom for sleep and sex.
3. Plan a relaxing bedtime routine. We know the benefits of a good bedtime routine for babies and children. The same principles apply to adults. A good routine tells your brain that it's time for sleep. Choose what works for you:
- Take a warm bath or shower
- Watch an amusing tv programme
- Listen to soft music
- Listen to an audio book or Radio 4's Book at Bedtime
- Have a warm non-caffeine drink
- Read an entertaining book or magazine
- Listen to a relaxing, self-hypnosis recording
Avoid anything that winds you up eg newspapers, news programmes, arguments with family members etc
4 Eat mindfully. Avoid big, rich or spicey meals within two hours of bed time.
5. Drink sensibly. Cut down on caffeine. Limit alcohol - it reduces the quality of your sleep.
6. Quit smoking - Nicotine is a stimulant and it can disrupt sleep.
7. Manage your stress level. Practice relaxation techniques to unwind and prepare for sleep. 7/11 breathing is easy to learn and very effective (see Blog 1 February)
8. Getting back to sleep. If you wake up during the night:
- Keep thinking about how comfortable you are in bed. Remember that your body is resting and that's all that matters.
- Try the 7/11 breathing technique or your other favourite relaxation technique
- Do something boring. Waking up in the night should not be rewarded. If you want a drink just have cold water. If you want to read, stand up and do it.
- Use your notepad and pen. Sometimes when you wake up during the night you remember something important. Keep a note book and pen next to the bed so that you can write a reminder and go back to sleep
9. Exercise regularly. Regular exercise is good for your general health and for your sleep. 20 or 30 minutes of exercise a day can make all the difference to your wellbeing. If you don't have time for planned or organised exercise try getting out for a walk, or bike ride or do some gardening. Keep to relaxing exercises in the evening such as yoga or pilates.
10. Consult your doctor if you:
- have persistent day time sleepiness
- have trouble breathing during the night and wake up frequently
- experience frequent morning headaches
- feel crawling sensations in your arms and legs at night
- physically act out dreams during sleep
Sleep tight!
On 28th Feb, I was on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire along with my colleague, Jacqui Kemp. We talked to Antonia Brickell about the physical and mental benefits of good sleep and some tips for achieving better sleep. If you missed the programme don't worry, I'll be writing about the advice we gave.
The benefits of sleep are more than just resting and gaining energy for the next day. Our normal sleep requirement is 7-9 hours per 24 hours.
Sleep:
- keeps you heart healthy. Lack of sleep has been associated with worsening of blood pressure and cholesterol, risk factors for heart disease and stroke;
- may help to prevent cancer. Have been found to have a higher risk of breast and colon cancer;
- reduces stress. When your body is sleep deficient, it goes into a state of stress and the functions are put on high alert, increasing blood pressure and the production of stress hormones
- reduces inflammation. The increase in stress hormones raises the level of inflammation in your body
- aids memory. While your body is resting, your brain is active, processing your day, making connections between events, sensory input, feelings and memories.
- helps to control your weight. It is thought that lack of sleep impacts the balance of hormones in the body that affect appetite.
In my next post I'll be giving you some top tips for a good night's sleep.
Healthy Weight Loss in Obesity Awareness Week
, who plays King George VI says “… this is common to everyone who struggles with stammering: all you want is to get to the end of a sentence. To speak is your dream, content is often secondary. You'll order fish instead of beef at a restaurant because you can't get the "b" out.” (The Observer, 2 January 2011)
Woman's Hour on Monday 13 December devoted a whole programme to the subject of the menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy. This followed the enormous listener response the programme received to an item on the subject last week.
The presenter, Jane Garvey, was joined by guests Professor Mary Ann Lumsden from the British Menopause Socity, Dr Wendy Denning and Dr Marilyn Glenville - a nutritionist with a special interest in natural solutions to menopause symptoms. During the programme they discussed listeners' experiences and questions and considered the benefits and risks of HRT. It included advice on lifestyle, nutrition and food supplements.
One of the exercises that I ask clients to do when they are experiencing low mood or stress is called "Three Gifts". It involves thinking of gifts that you have received during the day and selecting your top three. These are not the big gifts that we wrap up for Christmas and birthdays. These are the small things from people and nature, like a hug or a kiss, or rays of sun shining through clouds or the colour of autumn leaves.
When you start off doing this it can be a bit tough but once you get into the swing of it, it's a lovely way to end the day. If you can involve a partner or friend and discuss them together it's even better.
What brought this to mind was getting up this morning and looking out of the wind
ow at a scene covered in a deep, white frost. I was overwhelmed by all the amazing sight: white trees silhouetted against a pale blue sky; icy cob webs; creamy coloured sheep grazing ridged, white fields; red berries shining out of frozen hedges and a hot steaming cup of tea when I got home. And then the sun came out and by early afternoon it was all transformed.
So what will your three gifts be today? Enjoy them and look forward to tomorrow's choices.