How I Got My Sleep Back

Sleep is a common struggle today. We’ve been conditioned to operate against our body’s own natural rhythm in so many ways. Breaking that cycle, beginning to listen to our bodies again, seeking out what is truly needed spiritually, physically, and emotionally is no small task, but pays great dividends. In this blog post I’ll share my own experiences as well as how we can go with our body’s own rhythms instead of acting like it’s an adversary.

After miscarrying I would have to say that one my largest challenges was sleep. It was extremely frustrating because all I wanted was to heal. So much of our healing day to day comes through our sleep, and that was the one thing that I could not attain for almost 9 months. I was so sleep deprived that I was not able to drive. I went from 9 blissful hours of sleep each night for several years to maybe 2-3 hours tops, many nights only 1 hour. I’d never struggled with sleep before. I felt like a zombie. My nervous system was in the pits. I refused to take pharmaceuticals because I knew of the dangerous side effects that could come from the drugs. Absolutely no shame to anyone who currently or who has utilized them, but it just wasn’t the right choice for me.

Sleep is foundational for so many functions in the body like good concentration and cognition, heart health, healthy blood sugar regulation, immune health, and emotional well-being. As a holistic practitioner, I was fully aware of the necessity of good, healthy sleep. So whether you have dealt with sleep issues for what would seem a lifetime or something more acute has surfaced, my hope and prayer for you is you can be blessed by my story, and perhaps implement something helpful to you. As always this is not medical advice, and any implementations you decide to try, talk them over with a trusted practitioner or healthcare provider.

Ways to Improve Healthy Sleep

If we want to sleep well, over the years I’ve learned that what we do during the day, affects our night. Our habits big and small add up. So I will list some of the top areas that I honed in on to regain sleep. Depending on how long your body’s rhythm has been disoriented, will really dictate of how quickly healing comes. Remember to be patient with yourself and the process.

1. Reassessment

One night around 12 o’clock in the morning while I was soaking my feet preparing for a wet sock treatment in an attempt to sleep and support my immune system I felt the voice of the Lord Yeshua come over me. I had been praying asking the Lord to help me sleep just beforehand. I heard two scriptures. One was Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The second I was 2 Corinthians 12:9, And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” This was most definitely a time of reassessment for me. Things were no longer working that I used to do. If you ever find as though what you used to do is no longer working, it may be time to pause. It’s humbling to come to this place. You can always return to habits, supplements, any bio-hacking tools or practices if you feel drawn back to them. I wish I could say that I immediately stopped using all supplements, homeopathics, essential oils, herbs, and just remained still. That didn’t happen until about a month or two later. It took me a bit of time to realize this was where I needed to be. I fought it in my desperation to move on. I didn’t want to pause or go slowly. I wanted to stop hurting. I wanted the ache of missing my baby to cease. I wanted to sleep. Unfortunately, I prolonged the healed process. When I let go and trusted the Lord with the pain, put down everything else, and just did the necessities, it was then stagnation broke.

2. Acknowledging Trauma

My case after miscarriage I would say was not the typical case, yet, perhaps more common after any type of traumatic event, is the body’s desire to finally let go. What many of us don’t realize is we in an effort to stop pain, we do anything possible not to feel. We will scroll on phones, watch Netflix, eat, drink, anything but look at what is truly happening or has happened in the face. However, it’s important to feel so we can heal. So allowing ourselves the space to just feel for a moment, and see exactly where our body is without any other communication going on is really important. We can’t let go of what we do not acknowledge we carry. We push down, we suppress, and we don’t even realize that it’s what we are doing. Our bodies certainly know it’s all still there and eventually it just cannot hold onto anymore. Sometimes it’s that last drop in the bucket that can open the flood gates for healing. That’s what happened to me.

Once we are willing to open our eyes, we can utilize tools to help our bodies release. Often times we may have been carrying things that were not even ours, perhaps generational trauma or otherwise what it truly should be called is generational sin. My first and favorite tool as always is prayer. When we pray in authority and ask the Father in the name of Yeshua to release us from any and all the things hanging over us, it’s then that we can move on. After prayer, I like to pray before and after using other tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique, the Emotion Code, and limbic system retraining like DNRS.

3. Our Relationship with Light

Our culture today has cultivated an inside lifestyle and anti-sun mindset. We are told the sun is bad, to stay out of it, and lather our skin in cancer causing chemicals that is supposed to prevent cancer. For years I have said I need to go outside and charge my battery. There is now so much scientific research to support our need to be in the sun for multiple reasons. The sun is another tool, given to us by the Lord Yeshua for our health and well-being. Learning how to use it wisely can change our lives.

The most helpful tips I can share is whenever possible to get outside with sun exposure ideally at three times during the day, sunrise, noon, and sunset. If you can be outside more often than that, excellent! Exposing our eyes to the sun in the morning, especially as close to sunrise as possible naturally wakes us up. Instead of using stimulants like coffee first thing, try sunlight. If you can get 15-30 minutes of early morning light, that will be so helpful. Do not wear sunglasses or sunscreen. We don’t want to block the healing rays. Vitamin D is made by sun on our skin. When we use sunscreen this blocks that process. More and more research is showing that supplementing, especially in high amounts all of the time is unsafe and causing issues. Specific wave lengths found only in sunrise reset your circadian rhythm, in other words, our body clock. So if you aren’t in the habit of getting up and outside with the sun, make this a priority. Light at solar noon, around 12pm is also helpful, as is light at sunset. First begin with sunrise and then bring the others into your routine. This is not about perfection, but consistency. I like to grab my warm lemon salted water and take it outside to read my bible right after waking. If I am able I’ll spend more time outside. If you are driving to work during sunrise, put your windows down. Make it work for you.

Next we want to avoid the bright lights coming from all sources in the evening, but especially blue light we get in our eyes from electronic devices like smart phones, computers, tablets, and televisions. We can control this a variety of ways. I like to use the night shift option on my computer and phone once the sun begins dim it’s light. I will also wear my blue light reducing glasses. I’d also suggest not watching screens if at all possible during this time as well, at least an hour before bed. If you need to look for a moment or something, no stress, but as you are working on resetting your rhythm, be diligent to protect this time. I prefer to listen to things like podcasts and anything I need to watch or look at I try to do before sunset. This will change your life.

4. Eating Enough

We need energy to sleep. Did you know that? We need energy to do everything and three things provide us with energy: sunlight, food, and water with minerals. Here we will focus on food. Basic nutrition says we need two types of nutrients, macro and micro. Macro nutrients are protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Micro nutrients are vitamins and minerals. Both are equally important. When we are deficient or unbalanced in nutrition, we won’t be able to sleep well. Learning how to build our plate to truly nourish our bodies is an amazing skill. You don’t need to be.nutritionist to do so. All required is a bit of knowledge.

Our bodies love foods that are easier to digest. That means understanding which foods digest well on their own or how to prepare foods so they are easier to digest. There are so many misconceptions about what constitutes good nutrition. I’ll try to keep it as simple and short as possible.

Women usually under eat, especially on protein. We tend to, if we over eat anything, it’s carbs or fat. We need to switch that around. What I love about protein is it’s really individualized and easy to know just by going off of our weight. So it’s said for most healthy individuals you want to be getting one gram of protein per pound of body weight. However, most people, especially women unless you are trying, do not get anywhere near that because honestly it’s difficult to get that much protein. For most women, especially with a menstrual cycle, a great place to start is at 100 grams of protein per day. That still can seem like a lot at first if you’re used to eating say 40 grams a day. Broken down that’s 40 grams at breakfast, 30 grams at lunch, and 30 grams at dinner. Working on your protein in-take is a great place to start. It can honestly round so many things out.

You want to utilize animal based protein for your goal of 100 grams because it is the most bio-available meaning easiest to absorb. Eat a variety of different choices (grass finished and pastured whenever possible) such as beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, venison, eggs, plain organic cottage cheese, plain grass fed whole yogurt, wild cod, wild salmon, or wild sardines. In my opinion clean protein and collagen powders can be helpful to make up a few grams here and there, but don’t rely on them more than once a day. I really like Paleo Valley Bone Broth Powder (I get unflavored), Perfect Supplements Collagen (use discount code KHWPerfect10), and Equip Foods Prime Protein ( I haven’t bought it yet, but will be trying in the future).

Eat your protein before any carbohydrates. Get a food scale. After that you want around 20 grams of fat with each meal. That includes the fat naturally with the protein and the fat you use to cook, so you may not need to add extra. Include fiber rich foods like, fruits, cooked green veggies, sauerkraut, or properly prepared beans/legumes. You can use free tools like Cronometer to help track at first. You won’t need to track forever, but getting a food journal and just taking a few notes and having favorite recipes in one place will really help.

Lastly, eating an earlier dinner sometime between 4-6pm allows time for adequate digestion before getting into bed.

5. Movement

We were made to move. I’d always been an active individual. I practiced ballet, modern, and jazz dance from my pre-teens through early college years. I worked out at the gym, hiked/walked, did Pilates, and barre classes. After miscarrying, I didn’t have much motivation to move at all, and for several days after I rested. Miscarriage is a mini birth. My body was so used to movement though that being so still was abnormal for my body. I had so much fatigue from the emotional load and then lack of sleep that I just wasn’t able to do anything for about two weeks. It was even too hard to stand. When I finally started to feel better and my strength regain, it was almost as quickly that I went back down. I began experiencing a myriad of what seemed to be unrelated symptoms. At this point I was desperate to just be able to walk beyond the bathroom and back to bed. I was thrilled to be able to start walking again. I took it slow and at first would just walk to the corner then back. Moving makes everything better, it is a gift.

Maybe you are not such a severe place as I was back then, but you could move more. If it is possible, begin with walking. Getting in 30-45 minutes of walking, outdoors near trees if possible, each day can support not only our sleep, but blood sugar, stress levels, and our lymphatic health. I highly recommend, if you can make it work, to walk for 10-15 minutes after each meal. This will aid in a healthy blood sugar response, which is crucial for good sleep.

If walking is not in the cards right now, consider rebounding. A rebounder is a mini indoor trampoline. Although, you could have one outdoors as well so you could be outside in the morning light and move. It’s just an idea. You can find them used on Facebook Market Place very reasonably priced. You can start with the health bounce.

6. Our Need to Breathe Well

Before I was able to walk, I knew that I needed to calm my nervous system. If I could calm it down, I could heal. I began doing the one thing that I could still do, breathe. I learned about the breath, and how it was connected to our brain, heart, and gut. Our breath when utilized properly can stimulate our bodies to awaken or be at rest. I knew I was in a state of fight or flight, and there was no way I could sleep there. I needed to turn on my parasympathetic nervous system. One necessary way to enter there is through our breath. I practiced box breathing throughout the day and still do daily. There were other techniques I used, but this is a great place to start. Another tool I began using to assist in better breathing while sleeping was mouth tape. I was willing to do anything to sleep. I know this seems strange if you’ve not yet heard of this, but it’s an encouragement for nasal breathing. Nasal breathing is the optimal way to breathe while awake as well as asleep. Mouth breathing is actually poses many dangers. I happen to snore when I sleep and even though I wasn’t actually sleeping much, I wanted to guard and protect the sleep I was getting. To learn more, watch this video.

7. Grounding/Earthing

Whenever I had the chance and weather permitted I would go outside. I’d walk barefoot on the grass or dirt. I’d do so even if it was cold outside. I was on a mission. I’d learned several years back the benefits of connecting with the earth in this way and how studies showed inflammation in the body is reduced and the immune system is supported. I always felt calmer and more at peace after doing so. That was more nervous system support. This study demonstates grounding’s effect on sleep and cortisol levels. Needless to say grounding has continued to be a regular practice. I made it a point spend anywhere from 5-30 minutes depending on the weather. For additional grounding, especially for days when we cannot get outside, we love our Earthing mattress cover (Use discount code; KHW).

8. Bedtime Routine

In closing not only little children need bedtime routines, adults do as well. As a matter of fact we thrive with a healthy bedtime regimen. Keeping it simple is key and then sticking to it. Have a journal by your bedside and a pencil. Jot down anything bothering you to free up your mental space and also record 1-2 things that you are thankful for to end the evening on a positive note. Keep a light reading book there as well. It’s wonderful to read an actual book before sleeping because it forces you to be present and do nothing, but read instead of being frazzled and multi-tasking. Also on my nightstand is the box of mouth tape a linen sleep mask. The mask goes back to light. So during the day we want all the light, but at night we want to avoid light. Darkness tells our brain it’s time to sleep.

So these were all the areas I focused on in order to get back to sleep. I didn’t take any supplements that first year for sleep specifically. I am using some natural choices now. If you’d like me to blog about that, please let me know. May the Lord bless you and your sleep.

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