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Sleep, Serotonin, and Spirituality:
Rest is an essential part of your life; without it, you increase your risk for health problems. Unfortunately, in today’s world, many people suffer from sleep depravity, and no amount of natural supplements or sleep studies seem to help. You wake up feeling drained, foggy and struggle to concentrate throughout the day.
Holistic health, while still relatively new in concept, has a long history of use in philosophies and cultures. Adopting holistic science into your rest can enhance your well-being since it works to address not only your physical health but also the emotional and spiritual aspects.
How can a more holistic approach be beneficial for your rest? Here are some ways holistic science works to bring you a more peaceful sleep.
The Holistic Approach to Rest
Holistic wellness is recognizing the body as a whole rather than looking at symptoms and treating it with suppressing medications. Inadequate sleep can lead to a disruption in your hormones and potentially lead to other disorders.
When working on getting better sleep, the holistic methods focus on helping increase serotonin with specific practices. The goal is to provide for your physical, mental, and social needs and your spiritual ones to produce results that benefit your overall health.
The goal behind a holistic approach is not just looking toward treatment but finding the root cause of the issue(s) and looking for ways to prevent it. Discovering things that may trigger certain actions or bad lifestyle habits that lead to certain health issues, including vagus nerve dysfunction or sleep apnea, can be changed with some effective preventative measures.
The Spiritual Component in Health
The World Health Organization recognizes that spirituality is a factor that contributes to your health. It is characterized by being more mindful and balancing out the stresses and anxieties of everyday life that can weigh you down.
Spirituality works to help us understand, feel more fulfilled with purpose, and navigate challenges easily. It impacts mental health by lowering blood pressure and reducing the effects of anxiety and stress. It involves more self-awareness to slow down and ground yourself, taking time to reflect, be grateful, and channel inner peace.
There are many different holistic and spiritual methods you can utilize in your journey toward a more restful sleep, including the following:
Meditation – a practice where you train your mind to focus on being in the present moment. It often involves breathing exercises or visualization to reduce stress and promote inner peace for feelings of calmness.
Exercise (low-impact, such as yoga) – holistic exercise methods are low-impact to promote calmness. They can include yoga, which works to improve your mental clarity along with your physical abilities.
Nutritious diet – your diet can play a role in hormones, moods, and serotonin production. A balanced and nutrient-rich, whole food-focused diet helps support not only a healthy immune system but gives you the energy necessary to deal with more stressful or anxious situations, as well as improve your sleep.
Relationship building & connections – creating and cultivating good, positive, and uplifting relationships with others will contribute to your health.
Acts of kindness and service to others (volunteerism) – diverting your attention away from your own feelings of anxiety or stress contributes to a mood boost (serotonin), effectively alleviates those symptoms, and provides you with increased self-esteem.
Anger management (forgiveness, emotional healing) – relaxation techniques or counseling supply a long-term strategy to understand how to positively express your anger so that it’s healthy and not harmful to your health.
Prayer helps elicit feelings that include gratitude, compassion, hope, and forgiveness. All of these are associated closely with your well-being to stay calm and peaceful.
Journaling – if you’re not a prayerful person, you can help your sleep with journaling. It’s another way to express feelings and emotions, track your routines, and identify where you can make changes in your habits and lifestyle to suit your holistic health better.
Sleep science includes more specific methods such as Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), and Mindfulness. All of these can help with sleep problems.
How Does Holistic and Spirituality Practices Help With Sleep?
There are many incredible benefits to cultivating a holistic lifestyle, just one of which will help your sleep tremendously. Serotonin is known by many scientists as the “happy” neurotransmitter in the brain, helping relay signals from one part to another. The chemical has a significant impact on your mood and contributes to your state of well-being.
Most people attribute sleep to melatonin, a naturally occurring hormone in the brain in response to darkness to regulate your body’s internal clock. Both melatonin and serotonin work to regulate your functionality, which includes a regular sleeping pattern.
Low serotonin levels are linked with issues that include insomnia. Activities like mindfulness, yoga exercises, meditation, and other holistic and spiritual practices give your neurons a big serotonin boost, which helps reduce stress and other issues contributing to your lack of sleep.
Serotonin, melatonin, and dopamine (another neurotransmitter) play a major role in your sleep quality, including how long and how well you rest. Serotonin increases positivity and promotes relaxation, giving you that “feel-good” energy to be healthier and happier.
Which Holistic or Spiritual Method is Best for Sleep?
Which practice in your holistic journey toward a better night’s sleep is best can vary; no single method alone may work. It may take some time and experimentation to find the best way to utilize the science of a holistic approach and discover what activities help boost your serotonin production.
Ultimately, you can speak to a holistic specialist to help you get started and work on your well-being in a spirituality practice. Research and weigh your options to find a natural way to help yourself recover from sleep debt.
