If I want to improve my sleep, I need to do this…

You may recall that earlier this year I took antibiotics to treat my chronic Lyme disease. It was a hellish time for me and I really struggled with side effects and a worsening of symptoms. One of the most difficult (which undoubtedly impacted everything else) was that my sleep went to pot.

I’ve worked hard to improve my sleep

I’m no stranger to poor sleep. It’s a primary symptom of Fibromyalgia and Lyme disease. I’ve had various sleep problems over the years, including problems falling sleep, waking through the night multiple times and not getting enough deep sleep.

However, I have worked hard on improving my sleep and I had reached a point where my sleep had greatly improved. I got my 8 hours most nights, even if it took me 10-11 hours to get it.

Antibiotics disrupted my sleep

When I went onto antibiotics, my sleep took a massive leap backwards. My entire night consisted of disruptive sleep and I was waking up around 20 times a night. I also struggled to fall asleep. The duration and quality of my sleep both took a massive hit.

This really impacted me in a negative way. I was understandably grumpy and irritable. Lack of sleep also amplified the pain and fatigue I was feeling… which was even worse than normal thanks to the antibiotics. And I felt completely fed up and demotivated.

I knew that my sleep had to get better for me to begin to feel better. Sadly, that wasn’t something I was able to achieve on antibiotics. Therefore, as soon as I stopped taking them, sleep became my number one priority.

Resetting my sleep

Falling asleep and staying asleep were my two main challenges. I do have a number of things in my sleep toolkit (such as herbs, supplements and general sleep hygiene) and I can discuss these in a future post if anyone is interested.

But, more than anything there is one thing that is of the utmost importance for me if I want to reset my sleep. If I don’t commit to doing it then everything else doesn’t have as much of an effect for me.

That one thing is waking up at exactly the same time every single morning. To begin with, it doesn’t matter when I go to bed. It’s the waking up part that has a big impact on my sleep.

Setting myself up to succeed

As soon as I came off antibiotics, I knew I needed to go back to basics and reset my sleep. I also knew– from past experience– that I needed to establish a goal for the mornings that would set me up to succeed.

I, therefore, picked a time to wake up that suited me, which was 8.40am. I wasn’t for getting up at 7 am when I wasn’t sleeping! I had to pick a time that was achievable for me or else I knew I’d give up.

The alarm was set and I vowed to wake up and stay awake regardless of how I was feeling.

To start with it was hellish. I woke up feeling drained, heavy, sore and I was desperate to sleep more. I was literally craving sleep! I trusted things would get better if I stuck to my routine and told myself this. I used a couple of different mantras each morning to encourage myself to keep going. And things did get better. My circadian rhythm started to reset.

Starting to see progress

I stuck out waking up at the same time every day and after a couple of weeks, I even began to wake up before my alarm. Not only that, but I felt ready to be awake. Don’t get me wrong, though. When I say that I felt ready to be awake I want to stress that I don’t wake up and immediately get out of bed. I’m not that type of person. I need a bit of time to actually get going in the morning.

It’s more that I started waking up and didn’t feel like I could drop off back to sleep at any given second. Staying awake became less of a challenge.

I also feel it’s important to say that it took a couple of weeks for me to see progress through doing this but that for others it may take longer. This isn’t the first time I’ve been through this process (I’ve done it more times than I care to count because sleep is always a work in progress for me) and it seems to pay off a bit quicker the more I’ve done it.

I only went to bed when I was ready to sleep

Additionally, although I was waking up at the same time, I only went to bed when I felt tired. A lot of people put emphasis on going to bed and waking up at the same time everyday. While I obviously believe in the latter, going to bed before I’m ready just means that I’m lying there awake.  For me, going to bed too early isn’t just completely pointless but it also becomes a source of frustration.

Initially, only going to bed when I was tired meant going to bed somewhere between 11.30pm and midnight. Sometimes it was even well into the wee hours of the morning. Falling asleep could still be tricky for me though, even when I did feel ready for bed. With the help of melatonin (I used this nightly for 2 weeks) I started falling asleep quicker when I did go to bed.

Side note: I can’t take melatonin longer term or it starts to make me groggy in the mornings.

Over time, I started to feel more tired earlier in the evening. Naturally, my sleep routine was coming back. I started falling asleep between half 10 and 11 pm and waking up feeling better in the mornings. My ResMed S+ showed that I was getting more sleep and it was better quality too.

Using the bedtime feature on iPhone

I now use the bedtime feature on my iPhone (it’s found in the clock) and go to bed and wake up and the same time each night. For me, this is the end goal. I wouldn’t have achieved it without first setting my alarm at the same time each morning and sticking to it religiously. It’s the one thing I personally need to do to reset my sleep routine. I would encourage anyone to give this a go to see if it helps.

I’m not perfect

Now I am only human. There are course times where I become less protective of my sleep. I make the decision to stay up late with friends or I have a lie in at the weekend. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much to throw my sleep routine off. So this is the top tip I keep coming back to when I need it (remember how I said I’ve done this more times than I can count!).

Getting a decent night’s sleep isn’t simple

I appreciate that achieving good sleep isn’t as simple as following this one tip. Like I said above, I take a multi-faceted approach to sleep. However, I decided to share this tip on its own as, for me, it’s one of the most important aspects of creating an improved sleep routine. It truly helps.

If you would like me to share more tips about how I improved my sleep, let me know in the comments below.

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