Latest / Celeste The Therapist / EP 466 Unlocking Better Sleep: Holistic Strategies for Restful Nights w/Celeste The Therapist

Transcript

EP 466 Unlocking Better Sleep: Holistic Strategies for Restful Nights w/Celeste The Therapist · Celeste The Therapist

0:26
All right. Hi. Hi, beautiful people. Let
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me just go live on Instagram. If
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you are watching me on the replay, thank you for watching me. I appreciate
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you. I am streaming on multiple devices
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right now. OK, cool. So
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I'm streaming on multiple devices right now. My
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name is Celeste. I'm a therapist. My goal is to help shift the way you think.
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And I've been able to do that by talking about
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mental health, talking about things that we go through and kind
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of breaking it down for people. And if
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you're not familiar with my platform, I do have a podcast. So
1:11
So if you ever enjoy the episodes that I do, I
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keep them on social media, but also you can listen to
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them. You can share them with somebody that you love. Uh, these are
1:21
just kind of, um, practical tips and
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things, uh, to help you really rethink, uh,
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your role in your life and showing you your power. Uh, I
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recognize so many people are struggling with so many different things with the
1:35
lack of resources. Uh, so one thing that, as
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powerful as educating ourselves about a process or
1:43
educating ourselves about something and not just taking one word for
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it or one solution. Last week, we
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talked about
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embracing stillness. So that was a really good conversation.
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So if stillness is something that you are trying to
2:02
get more into or haven't thought about, definitely check out
2:05
that conversation. Today we're talking about sleep.
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So if you're joining me on TikTok, hi, you're
2:13
not able to see the visuals, but everyone
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else will be able to see the visuals. I'm a very visual learner. So
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I'm always going to put up the words and for people listening on
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the audio, you can definitely tune in on a Wednesday at
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12 or even if you can't, you can definitely check it out. So
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I want to talk about sleep because so many people are struggling with sleep. And
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a lot of times, people don't realize there's more than just
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taking medicine to help. There's holistic ways
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of thinking about managing sleep. And when
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you think about your mental status, I want you to think
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about because you know, there's always going to be something going on. But I want you
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to think about like, what am I feeding my body
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putting into it? Am I moving my body and
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sleep? Those are things that can really disrupt
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your mental status and you not really realize it and
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trying to work on it. And a lot of Americans are
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struggling with sleep. So the first thing I want you to think about is
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like why sleep is so important. And as you can
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see on the visual, it says sleep is as important for good
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health as diet and exercise. Good sleep
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improves your brain performance. your mood and your
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health. Not getting enough sleep regularly raises
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the risk of many diseases and disorders. I know a lot of people didn't
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realize that. These can range from heart disease, stroke,
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obesity, and dementia. I
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realize a lot of people don't realize how much
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sleep is connected to your physical wellness. As
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you can see in the article that I pulled up, and you
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can look it up as well, If you Google why is sleep so
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important, you'll see that it's very much related to our
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medical as well. People, you know, when I
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meet with people and, you know, I'll be checking out, let me just put this banner
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up, so, and people are checking in, and
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they'll be like, yeah, I haven't been sleeping, and they'll just like keep going, right,
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like just keep talking about something else. uh and I
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said we can't just like gloss past this whole like I haven't been
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sleeping like we it's just not something you know we can do
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um because if you're not sleeping then so
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many things are not getting done um sleep related
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to mental health um if you're not
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sleeping, then you're not going to get anything done. It's
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really impossible for that to happen. And
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when you wonder how many Americans are struggling or
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sleep deprived, it says that one third of American
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adults are sleep deprived, according to a survey conducted by
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the Center for Disease Control. Nationwide,
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the age-adjusted prevalence of short sleep duration reached
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36% 0.8% in 2022, that's a 10% increase.
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Obviously with everything that's
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happening in the world, it's the
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reality of a lot of people are struggling with the stress behind things that
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are happening. Someone says that I
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take magnesium at bed for sleep, I struggle with sleep. Yes,
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and like your vitamin deficiency, I
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did an episode on that if you look up vitamin deficiency, but
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your vitamin deficiency is another reason
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why you may be struggling with sleep because stress is definitely
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one of them. And you may have a
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not at your optimal level. And again, these aren't things that
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the doctor talks about, you know, if you're a doctor, or if your doctor talks
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about kind of a holistic approach to sleep,
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you have a great person in your circle. But
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if your doctor is just, if you're talking about
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sleep with your doctor and your doctor is just talking about taking
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a sleeping pill, not as a last resort, but as a
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first resort, I want you to think about challenging that idea.
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Because when you think about medicine, medicine just manipulates your
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rhythm to help deal with the symptoms that you're struggling with.
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It doesn't get to the root of the problem. And a lot of
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doctors, aren't taught how to get to the root of the problem.
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When you think about hospitals and clinics and things
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like that, they're not there to help you to
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maintain a healthy rhythm or lifestyle. When
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their intervention comes in, it's when you're having symptoms, right? And
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whether it's the high blood pressure med or whatever med that you take,
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the medicine is helping with the symptoms, but what is
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the root of the problem? And so I don't think a
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lot of people understand that when it comes to sleep. So
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if you're not sleeping, I just put this thought up, you're
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not alone. A lot of Americans today are struggling with
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sleep. And then how does sleep affect
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my mental health, right? Because so many
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people gloss over this when they're talking about sleep.
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I recognize that so many people don't recognize the
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direct link to how they're affected by sleep. So
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studies also show that sleep deficiency changes
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activities in some parts of your brain. So your brain could even be manipulated,
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right? If you're sleep deficient, you may have trouble making
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decisions, solving problems, controlling your emotions
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and behavior and coping with change. Sleep deficiency
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has also been linked to depression and
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risk taking behaviors. So this
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is something to keep in mind, right? If you're struggling with sleep,
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thinking about, you know, how to how to
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get a hold over it. Because it's not just like, okay,
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I didn't sleep well, like, let me go about my day, some of
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the decisions making the decisions you need to make some of the ways that
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you may have some goals that you're trying to set that's not working out.
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I always tell people, you know, whether we're talking about sleep or
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any kind of like, vitamin deficiency or medical stuff, I
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said, yeah, you could come to therapy. We can talk. But I
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promise you, you're going to feel like you're fighting against yourself
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even more so because you're having a hard time making
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it happen. You are welcome. You're
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having a hard time making it happen if you are not
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sleeping. That is the foundation of how to
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get things done. It's related to so many things.
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And it's so dismissed. And even when it's talked about, trying
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to get to a level of being able to sleep can
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be challenging, right? And so I want you to think
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about these things, and how you can work on
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sleep. And that's what the next section right now we're going to go into is
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thinking about how I can improve my sleep, I wanted to set up
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the foundation to show you like why this is important, because you
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don't really think about it that deeply. So now I want you to think about it
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that deeply. Now that you understand the ramifications
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of not having quality sleep, it's probably affecting your
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progress with the medical things you're trying to work on. It's probably affecting
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your progress with the literal goal setting things you're trying
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to work on if you're not finding yourself getting adequate sleep.
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All right, so let's go into how can I improve my sleep? That's important. So
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the first thing is thinking about like your space, like making
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sure it's not busy, right?
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If you can work on developing a good system every night, that's
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important. Systems are important. Our brain
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operates off of systems, right? If you are, like
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I always say, if you have a right car, you're going to keep seeing the right car because that's
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what your system knows. If you're thinking about like, oh, how
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can I make this business plan better, and you're making intentional time
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to make your business plan better, guess what your mind is going to do? It's
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going to look for ways to make your business plan better. If
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you are consistently like not in a routine of
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the night, you had a long day, and then you just kind of like roll
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over after you've been scrolling and try to go to sleep. There's
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no real system there. Your body needs systems
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to sleep. So developing a consistent schedule where
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you work on going to bed every night. Is there
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a possibility that sometimes you may not go to bed a certain time
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at that night? Do I always go to bed every night at the same time? No.
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Um, consistently. Yeah, I do. I create that nighttime routine.
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Um, and I just shared if you're following me on Instagram, um,
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I just shared, uh, uh, old posts I did
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about my nighttime routine. Um, but I'll share it here today too,
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but, um, creating that nighttime routine. allows
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your system to understand, like, okay,
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this is what we're about to do. We're about to go to bed, right? I know
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when I have to go to the bathroom, like, I'll be like, okay, like, if I'm in
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a store, and I have to go to the bathroom, and then, and
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then I don't have to go as bad. But as soon as I go into the bathroom, like, dang,
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I gotta go really bad, because my system knows, like, okay, we
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don't have to hold it anymore. Now we're about to like, we're in
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the bathroom. So now we can get ready to go to the bathroom. That's
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when you think about like sleep and trying to retrain your
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system on sleep, like making sure
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there's no screen time 30 minutes before and making sure
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that, and then your system starts knowing, okay, we're about to wind down.
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The next thing it says is avoid, okay, turn off electronics at
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least 30 minutes before planned sleep. That's big,
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like, you know, a lot of these things that I'm talking about today, you
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may find yourself that, that you are doing it. And I want
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you to really think about, like, if you really want to improve your sleep,
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there's no quick fixes, like there's not no magic pill. Well,
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like there is a pill that may put you to sleep, but put you to sleep longer
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than you need to, or you may it may have side effects. You know, if you want to try
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to take a holistic approach to this, these tips are
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really going to be helpful. Avoiding caffeine, alcohol and
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sugar, and large meals before bedtime.
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Really try to plan out your day where you're not eating last minute, eating
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a bunch of sweets and stuff last minute. You're activating your system. You're
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making it hard for your system to start to unwind and
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get ready to sleep. Avoid
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heavy meals two to three hours before bed. Practice relaxation techniques.
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So try reading, listening to music, or taking a hot bath
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before bed. This is something that's important, right?
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All these tips I'm talking about doesn't cost any money. It
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requires intention, though, right? One practice that
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I recently started that I've been sharing on my stories on
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Instagram and TikTok is that At
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the beginning of the year, I said I wanted to read more.
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I listen to audibles, audible books, and I
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read, but not like intentionally. Like, if I have time, like,
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oh, OK, let me read, right? Last week, I was like,
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yo, Celeste, you said you wanted to read more,
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and you're not really doing that, right? Like, holding yourself accountable
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is so dope, right? Because you can make things happen. So
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what I started doing was setting my Alexa at
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930, because my phone shuts off
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at 10. Everything goes off where if I need to use my phone
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or use any app on my phone, I got to put in the code if it's here with
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me. So literally, I just put my phone down at 10, right?
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And so I now have been reading every
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night. And it's been amazing, right? setting
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my thing for 15 minutes, then 25. Now I'm doing 30 minutes
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a night. And the book I'm currently reading, right, because
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this tip right here, it says practicing a relaxation technique.
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This tip, it takes me away from the screen. It
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allows me to read something that I can enter into my
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spirit in a healthy way. Like if it's a book that's like,
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Horror, like if you like certain things that might make you a
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little sitting in spirit in a negative way, probably don't read that at night. But
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reading something soothing is powerful. Because the
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book I'm reading is called Restless Resistance by the Knapp Ministry. And
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I woke up thinking about what I had just read. I woke
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up thinking about that. I went to bed very relaxed. It
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just so happens that that's the title of the book that I'm reading, right?
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But it definitely sat in my spirit. It unwinds me.
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So that just started two weeks ago. But prior to me
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creating a tension behind reading more, I
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listen to music. I'll take a shower, use some
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aromatherapy soap,
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which helps make me get into
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the present more. And then I'll use
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sleep sounds. So I'll go on YouTube. they have rain sounds, they
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have sleep sounds. So those kind of things help unwind me with
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my kids. So for people that have children, and you
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want to like work on like, you could work on it together, I think that would
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be so amazing. And you want to work on helping them
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develop better habits, that's the best thing you can do. Even if
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you didn't grow up with them, or you're learning them, bring them into the dialogue, because
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guess what, they're going to be an adult one day, and they're going to need to know
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how to manage life, how to manage sleep when my sleep's off,
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how to take care of myself. Um, you can even add a
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meditation routine, uh, to your nighttime routine. And
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if you say, I don't know how to meditate, uh, I promise you
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it's not, it's not as challenging as you think it
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is. It's literally being still. And, um, you can even
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put on a guided meditation on YouTube. Again, I'm always going to
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give you free resources cause I want to help you debunk this
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idea of, um, excuses of what you don't have,
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right? Our system sets it up where it
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provides us with wellness tools, but
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in a way that is connected to money, right? And
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so if you can think about these things where you're not going out of your way,
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you're not having to purchase something, and you're able to actually work
16:47
on developing better sleep routine, like
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that's so important. So or a hot, so
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a hot bath, listening to music, reading. So those are
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some of the things that you can think of as you're trying to
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practice it. And then perform the same nightly
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routines every night, right? This is literally signaling
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to your system that it's time for bed. Don't
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watch the news at night. If you like to watch certain
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shows and be updated, make sure that you're not doing it
17:21
right before sleep. That's something that can
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keep your system riled up, right? The mind is way more
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powerful than we realize. Like, I don't think people understand the magnitude of
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just how powerful the mind is. Hey,
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Dawn, I don't think people realize just how powerful the mind
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is. It's very powerful. And if you can
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work on paying attention to what you're engaging, right? So not
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inputting more. Now, if you're somebody saying, Celeste, it's
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not that I'm inputting more, but I have all of these things in
17:53
my head before I go to bed that I'm thinking about. And
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partly of why that happens, especially if you're somebody that's always
18:00
on the go, right? And then at night is when
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you're able to kind of like, take a deep breath and relax. All
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of those things that you've been avoiding are probably coming
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in like a dam's been broken, and
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it's just fluttering in. And it's just like you're ruminating on all
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these things that you may have said or that you should have said or
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that you didn't say. There's probably a lot of ruminating happening
18:28
at night that's keeping you anxious. We can
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make ourselves extremely anxious just by the way we're
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framing things. where we'd be like, dang, why did I let this person say that?
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Or I should have did this, right? It's
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important to like, if you have like a notebook by your
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bed, you can toss in some last minute thoughts on
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that before you go to sleep, trying to like dump it out, just write
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whatever it is that you're thinking, that's something that you can do. If
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that's happening periodically, definitely like making time
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to process your day every day is going to be
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so helpful. A lot of times we ignore,
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we ignore, we ignore, partly because we've never learned how
19:11
to deal with things. We never learned how to deal with conflict. We've
19:16
never learned how, because, you know, a lot of times we avoid the
19:19
conflict outside. And what does it do? Like in the moment, it's
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like, oh, okay, I don't have to be anxious about that because
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I'm not going to speak up for myself. I'm not going to say it
19:29
because I don't want to hurt their feelings or whatever it is. Next thing you
19:32
know, you're, dealing with that conflict inside because
19:37
your system knows that you're not
19:41
sticking up for yourself or you're not speaking up in the way that you
19:44
could have, right? So be mindful of making
19:48
sure you're finding space to release some of the things at
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night that are happening because it'll definitely help you
19:56
get better sleep. If anybody has any questions, let me know.
19:59
I'm gonna get ready to wrap up. The last thing I want to say about this
20:02
process is that as you're trying
20:06
to develop sleep habits, I shared mine.
20:09
I like the music and I like the
20:13
rain sounds. Somebody else may not like those rain sounds or
20:17
that type of music. I used to go to bed listening to classical
20:21
music because we didn't have Apple Music or
20:25
YouTube. I had the radio and at night they
20:28
would play like classical music on the radio station
20:32
and That would actually relax me
20:35
and make and I would feel very calm I
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didn't realize like this was like therapeutic what I was doing, but it definitely
20:42
was Music has always been really helpful
20:45
for me Excuse me. It's been really helpful for me. But
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if you are finding yourself trying out these different routines
20:54
like give it some time and If it's not
20:57
working, it's OK to try to reset or try something different. Don't
21:01
be afraid to try something different, especially if what you're
21:04
doing isn't working. Also, make sure you're having grace
21:08
with yourself during this process. That's something
21:12
that's important. A lot of times, we beat ourselves up
21:15
because we know we're struggling with something. And we're like, why can't we just get it
21:18
together? And it's kind of like, how is that helping you while
21:22
you're speaking down on yourself or trying to bully yourself? How does that
21:25
help you get to that point? It doesn't help you. So really be
21:28
mindful as you are trying to navigate working
21:32
on better sleep of how you're speaking to yourself, because
21:36
those habits that you have didn't develop overnight, right? Like
21:39
for some people like who's lived in survival mode most of
21:43
their life, being still and trying to sleep is scary
21:47
to your body, especially if you're somebody that lives with
21:50
anxiety throughout your day, right? you're
21:54
always worrying about the next thing. And then you
21:57
call yourself trying to go to sleep. Your system is like, what are we doing? We're
22:00
supposed to be worried about this stuff, right? And so
22:04
really being mindful that as you're trying to work on better sleep,
22:08
that sometimes it's something that's been happening for
22:11
so long. And so you have to have patience with yourself
22:15
to guide yourself through the process of trying
22:18
to get to a better optimal sleep pattern. Um, someone
22:21
on Instagram says, what about, um, sleep deprivation due
22:25
to menopause? Yes. And that's something like, uh,
22:29
um, medically. Right. And that's why I always tell people, um,
22:32
to definitely like when, when things are going out, let's rule out
22:36
medical. Um, and I'm not sure in
22:39
regards to like, I, I would take the same approach
22:43
with working on your sleep, even if it is due to menopause. but
22:47
obviously there's something like medical changing in your system that's
22:50
creating it. Um, and I do know there are some medical conditions
22:54
or, um, things that could be going on with people
22:58
that, um, can disrupt their sleep. Um, so
23:02
definitely doing your research on it, right. Um, because with
23:06
menopause or any other medical conditions comes a
23:09
slew of, um, possibilities of different things
23:13
you can do that might be outside the realm of
23:16
what the average person would do. So definitely like
23:20
doing your research about that. So if
23:23
you're dealing with a medical condition that or medication,
23:27
some medications, unfortunately, like can
23:32
cause like sleep deprivation. And
23:35
then stress, you know, stress is a big, biggest one. I
23:39
think a lot of Americans are dealing with when it comes to struggling
23:43
with sleep. So really being mindful of your stress
23:46
level and how you're managing it. And really what
23:49
you're saying to yourself, right? That's the last thing I'll leave you with is
23:53
really thinking about like how you are framing your
23:57
day to day, how you're framing your wins. Are you acknowledging your
24:00
wins? When things aren't going well, how you're framing it.
24:04
Because the way that you're talking to yourself and ruminating
24:07
over things, can definitely keep you in a state of
24:11
exhaustion. And even when you're trying to sleep, it'll
24:15
be hard to sleep because the way your mind has been focusing on
24:18
those things. So I hope
24:22
this was helpful. I hope this makes sense. You
24:25
know, we are all work in progress, right? If
24:29
money has been if you like, you know, want
24:33
more mental health support, and you haven't been able to like get a
24:36
therapist or find a therapist or your insurance may
24:40
not have covered it or whatever. Like, you
24:43
know, I started this podcast back in 2018 because when
24:47
I went into private practice, I recognized that, you know, I've
24:51
always had a job and good insurance. So having access to
24:54
therapy was easy for me, but it wasn't until I went into private practice, I
24:58
recognized that it's not as easy as I
25:01
thought it was. Like, it's really hard. And I
25:04
also want people to understand that
25:08
there are so many other ways to work through things, right? Therapists
25:13
and psychiatrists, we're not gatekeepers to the mental health system
25:18
and the wellbeing, right? I feel like it's kind
25:21
of framed that way a lot of times. And so if the
25:25
meds aren't working or if the therapist isn't working or you can't find
25:28
one, you feel like you just have to struggle. And I don't want people to
25:32
think that because before therapists and psychiatrists came
25:35
along, There were all these things that I'm talking about, people
25:38
were doing and talking about, but we stopped talking about holistic
25:42
ways of healing because the system doesn't allow,
25:47
the system doesn't get paid if you are going for that walk, if
25:50
you are working in your sleep time routine without talking
25:53
to a doctor about medication, right? And so you
25:57
got to take your power back and really begin to look
26:01
at what you're doing, what you have power over, And
26:04
if there's a barrier, acknowledge the barrier. But if I can't do that,
26:08
what can I do? So that's what these Wednesdays are
26:12
for, is for me to talk about things that
26:16
people are going through and help you think about ways to
26:19
rethink it or reimagine it for yourself. Because if you
26:22
start to do that, guess what's going to happen? Your mind's going to help you continue
26:26
to deliver the possibilities. If you feel hopeless about
26:29
it, if you feel like it's never going to change, if you start If you're talking
26:33
like, hey, I'm always sleep deprived, or no, I never sleep.
26:37
Guess what's going to happen? Your mind is going to make sure you never sleep
26:40
and you're always sleep deprived. There's just so much power in
26:43
the words. You're welcome. So thank you so much. You
26:47
can follow me on all social media platforms by
26:51
TikTok. I'm on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram,
26:56
and LinkedIn. And my website is
26:59
celestatherapist.com. If there's ever a
27:04
topic you want me to discuss, all you got to do is go to my website, and
27:08
you can put it into a box anonymously. And
27:12
I'll make sure to put it on the schedule. So thank you so much.