Why Sleep Is So Important to Your Mind, Body, and Spirit
March 16, 2022
We all know how important sleep is to our body, but did you also know that it is essential to the inner workings of your mind and spirit? If you are like most of the population, you experience sleep difficulties. With this blog, I hope to share with you some ways to alleviate those concerns and get back to a normal healthy night of sleep!
The Mind
According to Healthline, “Sleep is important for various aspects of brain function. This includes cognition, concentration, productivity, and performance.” It has been proven that sleep deprivation either on the job or as part of a regular sleeping routine, can cause mental impairment—not only in thinking and cognition, but also in cell regeneration.
Great news! You can improve sleep issues that affect the mind with self-hypnosis and meditation. When we use meditation, for example, it helps us turn inward, to focus on our breathing, and to quiet our minds. When we do this, we find the chatter that often goes on in our brains can be minimized, allowing for the natural process of sleep to set in.
Another great way to make this happen is to use your imagination. Create a story in your mind and then follow it until the mind quiets down and allows your brain function to assist you in falling asleep. (It’s similar to counting sheep but a lot more fun.)
Also, with the use of either hypnosis audio recordings or the practice of self-hypnosis, you can create an easy way to quiet the mind and give pause so the natural process of sleep takes over.
With use of any of these techniques on a consistent basis, you will be able to achieve the sleep your body needs and deserves.
The Body
In “What to Know about Sleep Deprivation,” Medical News Today reports, “Not sleeping enough increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Insufficient sleep can affect hormone production, including growth hormones and testosterone in men.” A lack of sleep also affects leptin and ghrelin, hormones that control feelings of hunger and fullness, which means that a lack of sleep can affect body weight.
In essence, sleep is crucial to your body’s ability to rest, regenerate, and control hormones that are responsible for a number of vital functions in the body.
What are some ways to help your body find the rest that it needs? Breathing is a great technique because it can help the body control respiratory rhythm. In addition, breathing also helps calm the Autonomic Nervous System, which controls your digestion and heartbeat. It is a response of the unconscious mind, something we don’t often need to think about. However, with intentional breathing, we can control our heart rate and slow down our nervous system so that we can relax.
With practiced breathing techniques like Four Square Breathing or Triangular Breathing, we train our mind and our body to follow our commands naturally and easily. In turn, our bodies respond with relaxation and lowered heart rate, which is good for calming the body and mind as a whole.
With these tools, you are able to better control the messages from your mind to your body. Just remember, it does require consistency and practice to see the best results.
The Spirit
Bestselling author and international speaker Gabby Bernstein sees sleep as a spiritual practice. “From a spiritual perspective, lack of sleep is a big way we block our power, creativity and intuition. Sleep is the time when the body has a chance to repair,” she writes. “When your body can’t repair itself, you not only feel ill, but you also feel blocked. Your energy field is weakened, which diminishes your power presence. Our body is just an energetic vibration. And if our body is literally functioning at a low capacity because we haven’t gotten enough rest, then we will have a hard time calling in what we desire and being of high service.”
When we are not being of service to ourselves, we are not being of service to anyone. The world needs you and your special abilities right now. When our spirit is not being nurtured, and we are not responding to our calling, then we are not being who we were truly meant to be.
Again, how do you nurture your spirit? By daily practice of turning inward, through prayer and meditation, and through energy work (like Reiki). When our physical bodies are not being nurtured, our spirit suffers as well.
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If you can find people to support you spiritually either through church, a meditation support group, or even an online exercise group, you will be doing your body and your mind and your spirit a great service. Now is the time to do what is necessary to heal yourself from the inside out. So you can be your best self and be of service to others in need. Be well and GET SOME SLEEP!
