#sleep-disruption

#sleep-disruption

While the holiday season is supposed to be a time of joy, connection, and lots of filling up on delicious holiday dishes, for many people, the pleasures fall short of their hopes. For some people, Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations inspire stress, the pressure to live up to family expectations, and overeating to feed one's emotional pain, along with psychological and/or physical isolation. Parents juggle restless kids in unfamiliar settings, hosts fret over creating "perfect" gatherings, and privacy can be hard to come by.

Few things ruin a night of sleep faster than waking up to pee in the middle of the night and turning on the blinding overhead light in your bathroom, jolting you awake and making it nearly impossible to fall back asleep once you're done. The same can be said for having to turn on the hallway light so you don't fall down the stairs in the dark when all you want is a midnight snack.

If you've been relying on a couple of nightcaps to drift off, you probably know the painful tossing and turning that comes when you try to skip a night. I used to pack a dozen travel-sized rum bottles in my backpack for weeklong camping trips, lining them up like medical supplies-not for a "good time," but to guarantee a "good night's sleep."

In my previous post, I shared how, after a decade-long nightly drinking routine, I discovered that even one drink can ruin a good night's sleep. Today, as a sober therapist and sobriety guide, I work with many clients who hesitate to give up alcohol because they'll miss its " sleeping aid" effect. Knowing how vital sleep is to our physical and emotional well-being, I completely understand that fear.

When we're in a heightened state of stress, the body keeps producing stress hormones even when we're physically tired. It's like having your foot on the gas and the brakes at the same time. When people are constantly 'on' - managing work, kids, notifications, endless to-dos - their nervous system doesn't get enough downtime. This makes it hard to switch from go mode into rest mode, which is essential for sleep.