I’ve had been dealing with something for almost 3 years before I decided I really needed help. Now it’s time for me to open up to you and give a closer look into this part of my personal life. And let me be clear on this: I need no sympathy. I just hope to help other girls that are dealing with the same problem!
Today: no need to hide tears anymore behind that smile.
For the past 2 to 3 years I’ve been struggling with one very important part of life: sleep. It all started with a few bad nights of sleep, to a night of not sleeping at all. Eventually it ended up with not being able to sleep every other night. You might imagine how frustrating these sleeping problems became.. Night after night I would be lying awake, with a record of 6 days in a row. My sleeplessness began with common things like a snoring partner, being busy and overthinking. Having too many thoughts running through my head and working long days for most often 6 to 7 days a week. I wasn’t able to relax anymore while being in bed, because..
..trying to sleep became my biggest fear. And I felt it 24/7!
The effects of my sleeping problems became more extreme, beyond being tired, having puffy eyes and a bad concentration. Shaking hands, rapid heartbeats and sweat attacks – I’ve experienced it all due to consequent NOT sleeping, but still keep working and exercising, plus lacking me time. I made sure to keep the sleeping problems to myself and just a small group of people close to me. Why? Because I felt like no one could help me or really understand me. But now, after I hit an ultimate low and had weeks of sleeping therapy, I wanted to come out to the public with this.
“Sleep is super important for a healthy body and mind”
Sleep is super important for a healthy life and definitely not something we should take for granted. We have a biological rhythm that runs with day and night. In the morning our body makes cortisol to get us up and running, while in the evening melatonin will get you to feel sleepy and eventually have a good night rest. Our bodies recover at night from all the activity during the day. We need this shut-down for multiple hours at night to give our brain and body tissue time to rebuild and get ready for what’s to come. However, this can be disturbed by many things. The list of risks caused by sleeping poorly or just too short is quite long, from being grumpy to having chronic fatigue and a decreased immune function. Some people need more sleep than others, but that we all need enough sleep is clear as day!
“I’ve tried it all but nothing helped until…”
And believe me if I say that I have tried everything to hopefully get me my sleep back. Think special teas, supplements, sleeping pills, etc. Unfortunately NOTHING actually helped and I’m sure I’ve read every single page on the Internet. Finally I broke and I couldn’t handle it anymore. Even the heaviest sleeping pills from my doctor didn’t do anything for my sleeping problems and I was literally crying, at loss of what to do. I was up against the wall before I finally decided to have a serious talk with my doctor about it. He recommended sleep therapy as a last resort.
Immediately after seeing my doctor, I made an appointment because I wanted to be normal again.. so bad. Now, after weeks of therapy I can say sleep therapy has taught me to sleep again. As if I was a little baby who needed to learn how to sleep. It wasn’t easy though. It definitely took some hard work to make changes in my lifestyle and mindset getting my sleep back. Now after a few months I can finally say I’m doing better than ever, but I’m still not there yet.
Hopefully my story will motivate those dealing with sleeping issues to not suffer from this this for years, while destroying their body. Like I did..
I want to listen to YOUR stories and help you out wherever I can!
Would you like to find out more about my lessons learned? Let me know if you want me to share my tips and new rituals on how to sleep like a baby in a next blog post. And obviously, I have integrated all my lessons learned and tips into my book “GELUKSFACTOR 10” too.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you to my boyfriend, for being my biggest support.
With love,
Carolina.
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Wietske Bakker Reply
Wauw, dit is heel herkenbaar. Ik ben onwijs benieuwd naar je tips omtrent je slaapgedrag. Kom maar door met die volgende blogpost❤️
Anna Reply
Heel herkenbaar, heb het al jaren en het is zo frustrerend.. Hoor graag wat je take aways zijn van de sleeping therapy~!