Since many people suffer from poor quality sleep, sleep interruption, SVT’s during the night, waking with a fast heart pounding, night sweats, positional SVT or inability to fall back to sleep once woken, here are some tips to help you achieve the best sleep possible.

Bedroom basics:

• Is your bedroom clean and clutter free?
• Do you like your bedroom? Wall color? Décor? Is it time for a makeover?
• Does your room feel like a sanctuary? (Bedrooms are for sleep, relaxation and lovemaking.)
• Is your bed/mattress/ pillows/ blankets comfortable?
• Have you tried moving your mattress to a new position? Sometimes changing it to face a new direction can improve poor sleep. (Research Feng Shui to learn more and do not underestimate the difference this can make!)
• Do you make your bed every morning?
• Make sure there are no desks, office papers, piles of clothes or dirty or clean laundry, or messes in the room.
• Do not put anything under or store anything under the bed.
• Do not sleep with computers or electronics charging next to your bed.
• All phones ringers and text alerts should be completely off

Sleep Comforts

• Try an eye mask/sleep mask. Sleep masks can change the quality of your sleep. Sleep mask benefits are: they protect your senses, reduce waking, help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep. Eye masks are one of the best tools that can be used to overcome sleep problems and obtain restful relaxing sleep.
• Keep your room cool and well circulated. A cracked window or ceiling fan work well.
• Try applying essential oils from young living. Apply it to your wrists, under your nose and a dot on the outside of your sleep mask. Always keep away the oil from your eyes. I like the blend called “gentle baby” for evening sleep.

Sleep Support through Diet

• Eliminate all caffeine.
• Do NOT eat past 7 pm. Digestion takes a lot of energy and disrupts sleep. Let your body SLEEP and not have to work hard at something else at night. No nighttime eating at all!
• Review The SVT Prevention Diet to make sure that you are eating an SVT friendly diet free of hormone disruptors, allergens, white sugar, and other digestion disruptors. (Get The SVT Prevention DIET e-Guide HERE)

Get Daytime Exercise

• Walk or lightly exercise during the day. Daytime movement simply helps make you tired and improve sleep! Aim for 45 minutes per day. Simple brisk walks will do or try yoga, swimming or stretching.

Nighttime Routines

• Try Yoga at night as part of a wind down routine to center you, transition into “nighttime” and engage the parasympathetic nervous system.
• Go to bed at the same time every night. Prior to 11 pm is best. Follow the same bedtime every night. The body loves routine! This step is crucial.
• Change your mindset and take the pressure of falling asleep off your worry list. Even laying down without falling asleep is restful. Simply accept that rest is rest and stop worrying about how long it takes you to fall asleep, if you will fall asleep or when you will wake up etc. This is mind chatter and negative thinking and let it pass. Stop engaging in it. Rest is Rest. Lying with your eyes closed helps you in many ways. Engage in breathe work and simply relax! Stop counting hours of sleep and judging it.
• NEVER check the time if you wake up in the middle of the night. Get out of this habit of counting the hours you have left. It’s more of the above and let this go completely.
• Everyone has what I call a peak time to fall asleep. If you miss your peak or become overtired it is much harder to fall asleep. Tune into your body and follow its cues. If you are exhausted at 9 but push through and stay up until midnight you are missing out on quality sleep time and moving into DEPLETION…a BIG no-no for SVT!!
• Consider waking up earlier. I LOVE this one. Waking up at 6 am or earlier will help you get more done in the morning and help you feel much more tired and ready for bed at night!
• Create an evening routine that feels relaxing and stick to it. What is your nighttime routine?
• Stop the use of all electronics for at LEAST 1 hour before bed. Beware of EMF’s (refer to The Indispensable Guide to Navigating SVT for more info on EMF sensitivity and SVT. Get the guide HERE)
• Try a hot bath or shower before bed. This relaxes all your muscles. Do everything else that needs to be done before the bath, so that right afterwards you can just crawl into bed.

Specific Tips for SVT

• Sleep upright with lots of pillow under your chest and head. Don’t lay flat. Sleep propped up with your entire torso supported with pillows, do not compress the chest. Try to tuck a small mushy pillow or soft blanket under your side face for comfort in this elevated position.
• Lay with one hand directly on your solar plexus. (hand on skin) Your solar plexus is your stomach and under your diaphragm. This is a powerful energy center known as the third chakra and is easily affected by outside disturbance and energy. It needs to be protected by cutting off energy that you are absorbing, and restoring your own energy and not letting it leek out. By placing your hand there and just leaving it there will soothe and relax this powerhouse center, calm you down and help put you back to sleep. This self-soothing technique is great for kids as well. You will notice a difference within 5-10 minutes of placing your hand there.
• Give yourself a foot massage before bed. Use coconut oil and massage each foot and your calves. This brings energy down and out and away from your heart.

Release Writing:

Journaling is a safe and free tool to help you release mind chatter and emotions that could be cluttering your head before bed. Journaling helps tap into your own inner guidance for direction, support and clarity. Here are some journaling ideas:

• Release write for 5 minutes. Write out your feelings, thoughts, problems, or anything that is on your mind. Consider it a brain dump. Set your timer for 5 minutes and go for longer if you want.
• Ask yourself: What am I not listening to or suppressing during the day that is coming up and out at night?
• What am I feeling?
• Where in my life do I need to take action on something?
• Ask yourself: How can I improve my sleep?

Sleep Supplements

• Consider Magnesium. Magnesium relaxes the heart and nervous system

Sleep and diet are two major areas that greatly impact SVT. It is so important to devote time to helping yourself get better sleep. Do what you can, that is within your control and you will see improvements!

Thank you for being a part of this community,

Your SVT Coach,

Laura