How good is your sleep?

Sleep.  What’s your relationship with Sleep?  When you’ve had a baby almost the first question anyone will ask is about Sleep - are you getting any, is the baby ‘good’ at it?  This focus on sleep carries on for much of childhood - getting little ones to bed in time to get enough sleep.  Coping with the impact of teenage body clocks on family life, and it goes on…  For parents - particularly it seems mothers, the impact of years of broken nights can result in a decade (or more) of poor sleeping.

You might have managed to regain your ability to sleep - only to have that all shaken up again in the Menopause.  Many women struggle with sleep with problems ranging from anxiety to the many challenges associated with night sweats and hot flushes.  

We know that sleep is important to so many aspects of life - from our mood, immune system, stress levels, mental health, sex drive, weight gain and risk of certain chronic diseases.  

I was delighted to read of a fairly recent research paper looking at the effect on mindfulness meditation training on anxiety, depression and sleep quality in peri menopausal women.  Across all three conditions, mindfulness meditation resulted in an improvement in symptoms, with the relief greater for more frequency of practice of the mindfulness meditation.

Inserting a meditation practice into your day can feel like a big challenge.  Setting an alarm 15 minutes earlier in the morning  and practicing with one of the Apps out there one place to start.  Or head up to bed a few minutes early and slot in some meditation before bed.  Headspace and Calm are two popular apps to try.

Do you regularly meditate?