Mindfulness and sleep : how to improve your sleep quality through practicing mindfulness PDF
Preview Mindfulness and sleep : how to improve your sleep quality through practicing mindfulness
MINDFULNESS and SLEEP MINDFULNESS and SLEEP How to improve your sleep quality through practicing mindfulness Anna Black FOR PIP—AWAKE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD Published in 2018 by CICO Books An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd 20– 21 Jockey’s Fields 341 E 116th St London WC1R 4BW New York, NY 10029 www.rylandpeters.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Text © Anna Black 2018 Design and illustration © CICO Books 2018 The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-78249-560-4 eISBN: 978-1-78249-772-1 Printed in China Editor: Rosie Fairhead Designer: Emily Breen Illustrator: Clare Nicholas Commissioning editor: Kristine Pidkameny Senior editor: Carmel Edmonds Art director: Sally Powell Production manager: Gordana Simakovic Publishing manager: Penny Craig Publisher: Cindy Richards Please note: If you are having a sustained period of difficulty sleeping, you should always visit your physician for advice. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF THIS BOOK CHAPTER 1 ALL ABOUT SLEEP CHAPTER 2 INTRODUCING MINDFULNESS CHAPTER 3 THE PRACTICES CHAPTER 4 YOUR SLEEP DIARY INDEX RESOURCES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION Most people will at some point experience periods when they find it difficult to sleep. It is most often triggered by a stressful event, but it can also be caused by illness, whether physical or psychological. While some illnesses can cause insomnia, sleep and the physiological functions of the body are so intertwined that many medical conditions can also be exacerbated by, or be a result of, sleep deprivation. I was always someone who fell asleep within minutes of putting my head on the pillow. If I did wake in the night it was for so brief a time that it didn’t affect my sleep quality negatively. I would sympathize with those friends who recounted tales of troubled nights, but I had no real understanding of how debilitating broken nights and sleep deprivation can be. Then everything changed. A combination of hitting my late forties and undertaking stressful building works on my home meant that I joined the millions who have trouble sleeping. And it is millions. When I first started experiencing problems sleeping, I became interested in what was happening. Sometimes I would struggle to fall asleep as I found myself reviewing the latest building dramas of the day, and it would take an hour or two for me to fall asleep. At other times, I fell asleep quickly but then woke up because I was too hot (the night sweats of the menopause kicking in), and once awake I found myself thinking—and quickly became caught up in a spiral of “what if” and “if only” thoughts accompanied by physical feelings of tension in
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