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sleep

Self Care~ Sleeping For Success

 

Your long and short term success  is impacted by your sleep.  Getting adequate sleep is an essential self care activity that optimizes your potential by detoxing your brain and healing body organs and systems such as your heart and blood vessels.  Let’s look at the new information about how and why getting enough sleep influences your body, mind and emotions. With this information about your precious brain, you may no longer believe and behave as if sleep is negotiable.

Physiology of the Glymphatic System 

Your glymphatic system, similar to the body’s lymph system, removes toxins and metabolites from the brain, while you sleepResearchers have observed that noradrenaline a fight-or-flight hormone is released in bursts when brain needs to become alert. Awake, your brain cells are busy processing information which creates waste products. The cells swell and are consequently closer together. And then, while you sleep there is an increase in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to your brain. Your brain’s glia cells, part of the glymphatic system, helps control the flow by shrinking the cells in your brain by 60% during sleep, thereby creating more space between the cells. Your CSF can wash through the brain tissue with greater ease,washing away harmful waste proteins  like beta amyloid and tau proteins, and other molecules that build up between brain cells during waking hours. The glymphatic system carries the waste to the brain’s blood stream, which then transports them into the larger circulatory system to be removed through the liver and kidneys. Upon waking beta amyloid concentrations are decreased. Maybe it is no wonder that when we say “let me sleep on it”, we have a clearer mind to work with upon waking.

Effects of Sleep Deprivation on You Physical, Emotional and Mental Abilities

Body

When you don’t get enough sleep your reflexes are slower, you are at risk for high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, diabetes, low sex drive, heart disease, poor balance and weight gain. Here’s a fun fact: Dr. Helene Benveniste and her colleagues at Stony Brook University School of Medicine discovered that side lying is the best position for ridding the body of metabolic waste.

 

Emotional

When you are tired, not getting enough sleep, you are emotionally off balance and your decision making becomes poor. You may experience pessimism, anger, sadness, depression and grumpiness. Sleep deprivation does not feel good and you may find yourself eating for emotional reasons because the chemicals that make you hungry are in excess and chemicals for a healthy appetite are at low levels. Remember, sleep deprivation, taken to extreme, is a form of torture.

Mental

You may experience a mental fog if you are not getting enough sleep to detoxing your brain.  Lack of sleep affects both your long and short term memories, which shows up as  forgetfulness. Concentration, creativity and problem solving skills are dulled. Your decision making becomes poor. This is when accidents such as med errors and car accidents are likely to happen.

!Woops!

Ignorant about the importance of sleep, and mistakenly  believing that multitasking was something to be proud of, I once was grazed by a car while working 3rd shift-not paying attention to the lights. Another time,  I called the police because I forgot my daughter was at a class. We all got a good laugh later, but at the time, it was not funny. I was exhausted from not sleeping.  I make better food choices and my dietary habits are healthier when I get enough sleep. In fact in 12 step programs,tiredness can be  a trigger for addictive behavior as indicated by the term HALT ( hungry, angry , lonely and tired). So dear sister or brother nurse, I ask you honestly,  “are you getting enough sleep?”

Getting enough sleep, essential to self care is a helpful tool in both a burnout prevention and burnout healing toolbox. And whether or not you sleep alone, healing happens best in a  community who support you in your self care efforts to develop strong habits that maximize your potential. The next Vitality in Progress- Healing and Preventing Burnout for Nurses Program ( VIP program) starts May 6, 2018. Give yourself the gift of a supportive community and personalized mentoring as you develop a keystone practice that supports your happiness and well-being. Good nurses become great nurses when they take great care of themselves.

Sending blessings to you for deep sleep and sweet dreams~~ waking refreshed, ready to start your day with enthusiasm, creativity and ease.

With love, Padma

 

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Four Rivers Endings and Beginnings

We know the quality of one’s nursing practice, the presence and authenticity one brings to those in our care is influenced by our understanding of the events that happen in our lives. How you end your day is as important as how you start your day. You can affect the start of your next day and even your next 24 hours, by your preparation for restoration and sleep.

I am excited to share with you a beautiful new practice I am using that is a nourishing way to end the day. It extends the positives from the day, ties up loose ends so that the next day is truly fresh. Rick Hanson reminds us, that it is as if our brains are Teflon for the positive and Velcro for the negative. If you want to increase the neural networks for the positive, it is important to extend the time you spend with positive and beneficial experiences. You may be doing this during the day as you experience gratitude or moments where you refocus upon your breath, coming back to your center. However, how often do you brush your teeth, plop into bed, fall asleep as your head is hitting the pillow and wake up with an alarm, feet barely touching the ground, as you dash off into the day? I have changed my nighttime routine. I now answer the following 4 questions from Angeles Arien, cultural anthropologist, educator, and award winning author. She speaks of the Four Rivers of life that nourish us and help us to grow.

1. River of Inspiration. What and/or who inspired you today? In what way or how?
2. River of Challenge. What challenged you to leave your comfort zone? Did you accept the challenge?
3. River of Surprise. What “came out of the blue” today for you?
Staying aware of these mysteries of life can help you move in new directions.
4.  River of Love. How or in what ways did love touch you today?

These questions encourage your reflections on the mystery of being alive, discerning what is important and guiding you to explore your own depths. In the process of answering these  questions regularly, you develop a new intimacy with your Self. Angeles Arien says,  “Intimacy  is, ‘Into Me See’ “.

This practice has added focus to my nursing practice and added a new dimension of closeness with my husband as we share our experiences of the Four Rivers. I also discovered one of my biggest challenges is my shyness around “putting myself out there” in the social media world. And, here I am doing it!

By ending your day in this nourishing way, you too may experience good sleep and a rich next day with focus and clarity. It benefits not only you, but your clients, students, colleagues, patients, family and friends. Perhaps you will enjoy your life and daily experiences even more as you open to your Four Rivers- Love, Surprise, Challenge and Inspiration.

Please share with us what comes up for you as you explore the Four Rivers of Love, Surprise, Challenge and Inspiration. How does this exploration affect your nursing practice and your personal life? What does the practice feel like for you?

We support your Four Rivers exploration here:

  
With love, Padma

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