Today is March 13 World Sleep Day. I believe regulating your nervous system is the most important factor in sleeping well. Especially in these days of anxiety over the effects of the COVID-19 virus.
What do you habitually do that affects your nervous system and interferes with sleep?
Calming the Nervous System
The parasympathetic nervous system is the brakes – it’s what stills our body and brings it to a state of rest, digest and repair. Think of meditation, yoga, hot milk, floating in the warm sea, or whatever your image of safety and calm is. You may have heard of the vagus nerve, the main nerve of the parasympathetic system. It emerges from your skull behind your ears and traces through the throat, heart and digestive system. There are many ways to stimulate the vagus nerve and help your body be ready for sleep.
This state is not the same as dissociation, in which we are in la-la land and not really aware of our body or the world around us – when we are out of our body somewhere. After my partner died, I was most inclined toward this state because it was scary to be in my body and mind, to feel the physical sensations. A craniosacral therapist helped me experience safety and support in being brave enough to feel my bodily sensations and emotions.
A Stimulated Nervous System
The sympathetic nervous system - what’s sympathetic about it is that it keeps us alive – it’s what kicks in when our survival is at stake! Picture the tiger chasing us – we need our sympathetic system to accelerate our heart, our breathing, the flow of blood to our legs and arms, to focus our eyes and ears – it is the fight/flight mode. We are in high alert. It’s also what we need when we stand up to make a public presentation at work, or face someone who’s bullying us. Fight the danger, or take flight from it, or “freeze”. We choose freeze when fight or flight is unlikely to keep us alive. In the animal world, it’s the mouse who feigns death to be less interesting to the cat. I froze up recently (for a few seconds) when the water filter under my sink starting spraying water all over my kitchen – and then I went into fight with my heart and mind racing. This is not the pre-sleep state we want before bed!
Balance
Both sympathetic and parasympathetic parts of our nervous system are necessary. There is a time for each. (It’s a bit confusing for our bodies if we activate both at once – like leaning back in the driver’s seat and having one foot on the brake and one on the accelerator!) They are part of the autonomic (or automatic) nervous system, meaning that they originate from the brainstem and their stimulation is not directly under our control.
What we can control is the input into our brain through our senses – eyes (watching TV), ears (music), touch (soft or painful), smell (pleasing or foul), and taste (caffeinated or calming). To be in high alert all the time is exhausting. To be totally lethargic all the time would be equally dangerous as we would not be able to mobilize when there is danger. The key is resilience. To be able to go into either state for the necessary period of time, and be able to come out of it easily. Scrolling emails from work before bed – how does that affect your nervous system? Does your system have resilience?
Cultivating a Resilient System
We can learn to regulate our nervous system. In our society, being in fight-flight-freeze is pretty common. Anxiety is very common. I think it’s valuable then to practice calming ourselves, so that our nervous system knows what calm feels like. I find craniosacral treatments and mindfulness meditation to be by far the best way. But it’s not where I started.
Not everyone responds well to being still – at first. I used to get fidgety, impatient, the mind wandering to worrying or problem solving, the body wanting to jump up and escape into some form of mind numbing…I get it! These are signs of an activated sympathetic nervous system. What needs to happen is to slow the breathing and heart down. At this stage, you might prefer moving your body in a rhythmic way, such as chi kung, yin yoga, tai chi, slow dancing. Singing or humming is actually a great way to stimulate your parasympathetic system’s vagus nerve. Being in nature may be helpful to you. Maybe you do well with silence, or meditative music? Step down your nervous system one level at a time in whatever way fits for you.
Meditation may work better for you if it’s guided. There are several apps for this – pick one with a voice that is not irritating to you. And craniosacral websites have excellent meditations that guide through body awareness.
Pick a certain time of day to practice the stillness. Some evenings I get into it better than others. Actually I like first thing in the morning before I get out of bed. I come out of it feeling energized and refreshed.
A craniosacral therapist can help your body drop into stillness and experience the rest and repair your body needs for its well-being. May you sleep well!