Sleep is Healing and Restorative
Most people do not think of sleep as healing, but it is. #sleep #healing #dreams
If you have experienced any abuse or trauma in your life that has invaded your ability to sleep you know how much you long for a good nights sleep. Isn't that the way it is with people? We don't realize the value of something unless we have experienced not having it.
For me, "a good night's sleep" is totally new. I have never had trouble falling asleep, drifting away without guilt or burden, my conscience was clear, but my sub-conscience was so full of unresolved and disturbing bits of data. Prior to medication and until after therapy, I had decades of torrent episode of wild displays of trauma. These episodes were so deeply ingrained and real-to-life that often even after being awakened the images or messages taunted me.
As you will find in all of my writings I see the value of the proper use of medication, therefore, I will plainly state that medication DID help me to have sleeping nights. My physical body NEEDED sleep; it needed to recover on the cellular level to function at its best. Many people who are dealing with abuse and trauma being seen by a doctor have medications. I recommend you take the lowest levels possible so that you can still dream.
Weight gain, continuous pains, headaches, digestive issues and so much more is effected by a lack of sleep ... even eye sight can worsen. The body needs sleep, period.
But, the soul needs sleep also. While the brain is the organ that helps to process what the person experiences, the soul needs to freely associate the deluge of data absorbed daily in a good nights sleep. The dream cycle can be interrupted on medication, so as my medicine is being tapered off on my second year after therapy, I noticed that I was sleeping fully and having more dreams which are the key to mental and emotional restoration. As the triggers during the day have left, the trauma images/impressions stored properly into memory slots that did not get jogged out by innocuous daily events. I am becoming more "normal" in the non-trigger-able sense of relating to life in the present without past barraging me.
Sleep is essential for good health because it not only helps our physical body recuperate from the days stress, it also is the critical time for our brain to sort through all that has happen that day and to properly store it after being processed. It is much like a huge mainframe computer that need hours to backup, scan files, and defragment the disk so that data is more effectively store. Without sleep or with sleep that is continually disrupted by night terrors our brain has facts, memories and feelings floating around ready to be trigger points though-out the day. We even have dream cycles where we try out new scenarios of how to respond to life situations--these are our wildest dreams.
I highly recommend trauma therapy to help anyone recover, not talk therapy, because the therapy you need much go deeper into the brain level, the unconscious level.
Having a consistent time of going to sleep is helpful, along with a nightly routine to alert your brain that sleep time is coming soon. There are no rules, you have to find what works for you. Some suggestions to try might be: lighting a candle, drinking a calming herbal tea with cream/milk, a soaking bath, relaxing music, a enjoyable book, journal writing, prayer.... you need to find what works best for you. One of the most important things you can do it to not view something with light in your eyes like the television, computer or digital reader; these stimulate your brain and do not allow melatonin to properly flow. For many months, I nightly took Natrol liquid 1 mg melatonin to help my body restart its production.
I still have my times when bad dreams effect my ability to get a good nights sleep. Sadly, this is most often activated when I interact more with my family. The struggles of the present in their lives cause me to be upset, hurt by what they are experiencing and unconsciously I have bad nights of more intense negative dreams. I awake tired, moody and even melancholy. But the night terrors no longer occur and neither do the hallucinations that stemmed from deep seated fear.
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| Dreams are necessary to Health (art by Soranamae on Deviantart) |
If you have experienced any abuse or trauma in your life that has invaded your ability to sleep you know how much you long for a good nights sleep. Isn't that the way it is with people? We don't realize the value of something unless we have experienced not having it.
For me, "a good night's sleep" is totally new. I have never had trouble falling asleep, drifting away without guilt or burden, my conscience was clear, but my sub-conscience was so full of unresolved and disturbing bits of data. Prior to medication and until after therapy, I had decades of torrent episode of wild displays of trauma. These episodes were so deeply ingrained and real-to-life that often even after being awakened the images or messages taunted me.
As you will find in all of my writings I see the value of the proper use of medication, therefore, I will plainly state that medication DID help me to have sleeping nights. My physical body NEEDED sleep; it needed to recover on the cellular level to function at its best. Many people who are dealing with abuse and trauma being seen by a doctor have medications. I recommend you take the lowest levels possible so that you can still dream.
Weight gain, continuous pains, headaches, digestive issues and so much more is effected by a lack of sleep ... even eye sight can worsen. The body needs sleep, period.
But, the soul needs sleep also. While the brain is the organ that helps to process what the person experiences, the soul needs to freely associate the deluge of data absorbed daily in a good nights sleep. The dream cycle can be interrupted on medication, so as my medicine is being tapered off on my second year after therapy, I noticed that I was sleeping fully and having more dreams which are the key to mental and emotional restoration. As the triggers during the day have left, the trauma images/impressions stored properly into memory slots that did not get jogged out by innocuous daily events. I am becoming more "normal" in the non-trigger-able sense of relating to life in the present without past barraging me.
Sleep is essential for good health because it not only helps our physical body recuperate from the days stress, it also is the critical time for our brain to sort through all that has happen that day and to properly store it after being processed. It is much like a huge mainframe computer that need hours to backup, scan files, and defragment the disk so that data is more effectively store. Without sleep or with sleep that is continually disrupted by night terrors our brain has facts, memories and feelings floating around ready to be trigger points though-out the day. We even have dream cycles where we try out new scenarios of how to respond to life situations--these are our wildest dreams.
I highly recommend trauma therapy to help anyone recover, not talk therapy, because the therapy you need much go deeper into the brain level, the unconscious level.
 |
| Restful Sleep is Essential (Art by Davepalumbo - DeviantArt) |
Having a consistent time of going to sleep is helpful, along with a nightly routine to alert your brain that sleep time is coming soon. There are no rules, you have to find what works for you. Some suggestions to try might be: lighting a candle, drinking a calming herbal tea with cream/milk, a soaking bath, relaxing music, a enjoyable book, journal writing, prayer.... you need to find what works best for you. One of the most important things you can do it to not view something with light in your eyes like the television, computer or digital reader; these stimulate your brain and do not allow melatonin to properly flow. For many months, I nightly took Natrol liquid 1 mg melatonin to help my body restart its production.
I still have my times when bad dreams effect my ability to get a good nights sleep. Sadly, this is most often activated when I interact more with my family. The struggles of the present in their lives cause me to be upset, hurt by what they are experiencing and unconsciously I have bad nights of more intense negative dreams. I awake tired, moody and even melancholy. But the night terrors no longer occur and neither do the hallucinations that stemmed from deep seated fear.
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