3 strategies for good sleep when you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed

How’s your sleep?

The quality of our sleep is often a good indicator of our overall health and wellbeing.

Sleep affects the function of almost every system of the body, and improving the quality, duration and timing of your sleep is one of the single most powerful interventions you can make to improve your health.

So get sleep, and plenty of it!

This is easier said than done, though, especially when you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed. 

There are lots of techniques and strategies around sleep hygiene to improve sleep.


Try these in particular to help your sleep if you’re feeling stressed:

  1. Avoid using computers, tablets, phones and any electronic devices within at least one hour of your bedtime.

    Not only is the brain likely to get stimulated by what you watch / read, but studies show that the light emitted from these devices suppresses melatonin (an important hormone for sleep) and can make it more difficult to fall asleep.

  2. A pre-bed brain dump!

    If you find you’re struggling to sleep and your brain goes into overdrive, or you wake up in the middle of the night and the thoughts are spinning around your head, try a brain dump before bed.

    Take a pen and paper and write down everything that’s going on in your head - worries, to-do lists, conversations you’ve had / need to have.

    Getting the thoughts out on paper is almost like a safety signal to the brain. It can feel safe that you’re not going to forget to deal with these things tomorrow, so it’s ok to let them go right now.

  3. Breathing for relaxation

    At night, we want to be in the parasympathetic nervous system state - the rest, digest and restore state - to balance the nervous system.

    If we’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed, slow and deep breathing can help to bring the mind and body to a place of calm.

    Try this 4:4 balance breath exercise lying in bed to help prepare your body for sleep.


If you’re struggling with your sleep and would like to talk through some strategies that could help, book your complimentary discovery call with me here.

Testimonials

Testimonials

The vision I created during my coaching with Sarah was great. The fact that I had created it with her help makes me smile - I look at it and think I did that, rather than copying something from online or from someone else. This was really powerful.

Whilst we set out goals for 2 areas of my life, the strategies definitely overlapped into other areas. The process made me really think about my goals and I now understand that I am the only one that can make the necessary changes. The coaching was definitely worthwhile.

Working with Sarah has been great. It really made a positive impact on my life and I continue to use the skills I developed with her.

Kate, Bristol

I found my sessions with Sarah to be extremely helpful in many ways. What I loved about the process is that is was so personal and unprescriptive. Our conversations helped me to focus on areas which I felt I needed to work on and to understand for myself why it was important to make these changes, for me, for my health and future. Sarah was very knowledgeable and the information she was able to give me was invaluable. I came away from our month of sessions feeling energised and with a new daily routine - a big and very positive change for me - enabling me to achieve many other smaller changes in my day to day that when combined should be of a long term benefit to me in all areas of my life.

I highly recommend Sarah as a coach and feel this approach is perfect for those who don't want to be told what they should be doing but rather to discover it within themselves, in order to make meaningful change.

MG, Bristol

I worked with Sarah to find ways to better manage anxiety and stress primarily caused by my current inability to exercise which I have always found critical to maintaining my mental health.  In an incredibly discreet way Sarah was able to lead me to find solutions and pragmatic ways of me being able to use tools to feel better about various things that worried me. On putting these tools into use I felt very much less anxious and better able to cope with day to day ups and downs. I’d not hesitate to recommend working with Sarah!

BM, Bristol 

My coaching with Sarah lasted about 8 months, my remit was to improve my well being, general health and reduce my weight.  During this time I had many outside influences and issues completely distracting me from my end goal. Talking with Sarah brought me back into focus and kept me on track with just a few deviations. I always felt uplifted after our chats, even if I’d had a bad week she managed to find a positive!  My progress was slow but at the end of our coaching I feel much more in control of my issues, my weight has reduced and my general health improved. I am aware of my weaknesses and how to deal with these. Sarah has made me so much more aware. One of my aims was to reduce my blood sugar as I was in the pre-diabetic range. This with Sarah’s help I’ve achieved with 100% success.  Thank you Sarah.

Nicki, Swindon

Before working with Sarah, I didn't have much belief that I could be healthy, fit and well. I looked at some of my friends and wondered how they managed to fit in exercise and healthy eating habits on top of a career and family, and didn't think that was something I would ever manage.  Working with Sarah gave me an enormous boost. I learned how to visualise my own wellness, and enjoy small steps towards my goals. I gained so much confidence by celebrating even tiny achievements that I now feel I can continue to get healthier and stronger for the long term. By embedding and building on the small changes I initially made, I feel better every week. Using the techniques I developed with Sarah to set new goals is really useful in continuing my journey.

Receiving Sarah's coaching by phone meant that I felt comfortable opening up about my concerns, and made it easy to fit in around children. She is wonderfully supportive and encouraging.

Becky, Bristol