Healthy Rituals For Better Sleep w/J. Rosemarie Francis

J. Rosemarie Francis (00:00.054)

In addition to podcasting, I've spent the last 10 years or so blogging, blogging about things that interest me, that infuriates me, that inspire me, or that excites me. And one of the things I blog about a lot is sleep, mindset, mental health issues. And while I am not a provider of mental health,

I am very aware of the things that cause us, especially as solo moms, to get tired, get weak mentally and physically and sometimes spiritually. So I wanted to do this episode based on my current blog post.

J. Rosemarie Francis (01:13.326)

So this week I wanted to talk about rituals, healthy rituals that you could use to induce a better night's sleep. Now I've been struggling with sleeping all my life. Recently, I've been fortunate to not have to struggle with sleep on a regular basis like I used to do as a teenager and as I worked and raised my two youngest son especially.

Sleep was nowhere to be found most of the time, because most nights, and you may can relate from this, I just stayed up worrying about all the different things that could or would happen based on my current situation. So in this episode, I wanna talk about seven healthy rituals that you could use, you could practice to induce a better night's sleep.

So, solo mom, if you are struggling with sleeping, this episode is for you. Now, it's very important that you have a healthy bedtime routine, that you kind of practice to go to bed regularly if you can. I know someone with younger babies, it's hard because baby wants what baby wants when baby wants it. But for those of us who can establish a routine,

bedtime routine, good bedtime hygiene is important to remaining healthy physically, mentally and spiritually. And so I'm just gonna briefly talk about these seven healthy rituals and they're very relaxing rituals for solo mom. The first one, and it's one of my favorite, it's reading. Although I must admit, reading doesn't really put me to sleep.

unless I'm reading a, you know, something boring. Most times reading excites me. But if you read something that is maybe useful but will put you to sleep, then reading is a very good escape for you to quiet your mind and keep it away from the day's worries so you can eventually fall asleep. And in this respect, to practice

J. Rosemarie Francis (03:40.962)

better sleep hygiene, a physical book is going to be better than an e-book where you're exposed to blue screen before you go to bed, as that's not a good thing. The second healthy ritual that I wanna talk about is prayer or reflection. And in this case, I encourage prayer. If you can pray before you go to bed, whether it's a prior of Thanksgiving,

or it's a priority of unburdening yourself to a God who cares for you because Jesus said, cast all your care upon me because I care for you. So maybe at night before you go to bed, it's a great way to unburden your mind, to take all that off your head, the children, the work, the bills.

and give it to a Jesus who cares enough to take it on. The third healthy habit, healthy ritual that I wanna talk about is yoga. Now it might seems that yoga is an exercise that might make you not want to sleep as opposed to wanting to sleep, but there are many yoga style poses

like restorative yoga that can help you to relax and your body calm down. Poses like the child's pose or your legs up on the wall and other poses that may help your body to relax and for you to get into that. Because a lot of yoga is also meditative.

you will find that once you practice yoga, you get calmer. And which brings me to the next one is meditation. Meditation doesn't have to be an hour sitting, taking your mind off everything. Meditation can be five or 10 minutes off. Relaxation, a time when your mind, when you can control your mind, or you let your mind wander more like,

J. Rosemarie Francis (06:08.652)

Make it wonder in a way that you're not fretting and worrying. And as you learn to meditate, if you haven't done so already, you will find that it's not hard to do and it's really, it's a really helpful exercise to get you ready for bed because it's slow erasing thought. It helps you to quiet your mind and slow your racing thoughts and ease anxiety.

So think about that. can get apps that can help you guided meditation, or you could just use your own mantra that you have. Practices like Transcendental Meditation has your own private secret mantra that you use to focus on while you are meditating for 20 minutes. The next healthy ritual, bedtime ritual,

that I wanna talk about is gratitude journaling. Another of my favorite and one you could do while you're praying, right? Or after you pray or before you pray or during a time of reflection before bed. Gratitude journaling is one of those things that, it's one of those ritual that is said to help to free your mind because

you're now positive instead of focusing on your problems and your challenges, you express gratitude for a life or for anything that you feel you want to express gratitude for. Your kids, your kids are healthy, you have a job, a bill paid, you know, you're able to breathe on your own, just different things and you could write those down before you go to bed.

and it is said to be a very helpful ritual to perform to promote feelings of contentment before you sleep. The next healthy ritual on my list is adult coloring. And no, coloring isn't just for kids. And you may say that it just sounds like, you know, it might be a waste of time, but it's not.

J. Rosemarie Francis (08:34.08)

Adult coloring is surprisingly meditative and it's something that was discovered, realized by Carl Jung, who realized that it was a very relaxing form of exercise for adult mental health. And so the adult coloring books are slightly different from the children's one. You'll notice the designs are more intricate.

And you know, they're more finer, like they're finer designs for you to be able to focus more on the coloring as opposed to what's bothering you. And the repetitive nature and the motions and focus required for adult coloring because of the way the designs are help to quiet your mind and relieve stress.

who don't need some stress release, right mama? And so the final one that I come to is an infrared red sauna. You might have heard of a sauna. You might not know what an infrared sauna is. And you might think that's out of your reach, but it's not. You might not be able to purchase. I have the room for, I have the money for.

an individual seed award, individual infrared sauna. But if you don't, you can get portable versions of a sauna on Amazon. Or you could join a local spa. And you don't even have to join as a member where you are paying a monthly membership. You could just choose to go.

when you feel like it. Because the sauna is not something you do every night, right? And there's a lot of these things you can do every night, like the adult coloring or the gratitude journal and the meditation. But like the yoga, yoga and the infrared sauna, you could do that like once or twice a week, know, alternate. I remember when I was in Canada, I used to pay $7 to go to the sauna every other day.

J. Rosemarie Francis (10:57.629)

so I could just flush my system. Because the infrared sauna is, it's one of those, it's studied a lot, but it's said to improve sleep quality due to the relaxing way and its stress reducing effects. So I would try sauna if you've never tried one. There's just one caution is that before you,

you go into a sauna that you do some research on it if you haven't already done so. And if you have any health challenges to talk to a healthcare professional about how to use a sauna safely for you, right? Everything is gonna be how you can use it or practice it for you. Remember that. So I hope this will help you to kind of focus and develop a pattern.

that will help you. talk a lot about stress reduction on my blog and I haven't done enough here on the podcast and I really want to start doing a little more of what I've been doing on the blog in the podcast because some people don't have time to sit and read an 800 page post but you listen to a 15 minute audio while you're running around doing your errands or on your way to work. And so I want you to do it this way.

Here are a few tips for combining with one or two of these rituals that will help you to improve your sleep and get yourself in the habit of better sleep and hygiene. One is to avoid technology before you go to bed. use a physical, read a physical book instead of an ebook.

and put the phone down and turn it off. I turn my phone off when I'm ready for bed because I figure whoever calls with an emergency, I can't help them anyway because they're away from me. And so I have learned to turn my phone off and if something is up, I will check it when I get up to go to the bathroom at night.

J. Rosemarie Francis (13:20.841)

But I turn it off because I do not want my sleep to be disturbed. And maybe that's something you can do. Maybe you don't think you can, but hopefully you can do that so you can at least get a decent night's sleep. The same with your computer and you know, it may be best to just put those things in another room and not in your bedroom. I never had a TV in my room because I do not want that kind of, you know, electrical magnetic field around me while I try to sleep.

And anyway, that's something else. The other thing is to have room darkening shades if you can. Keep your room temperature comfortable and your bed sheets comfortable, your bed's comfortable. Just get comfy in your bed. Make sure you're wearing comfortable clothes. And that way when you go to bed, you're

Whatever ritual you perform before bed will be augmented by the comfort of your bed. One of the things I used quite a bit when I lived in Brooklyn, if you've ever lived in Brooklyn, New York City, you know how noisy it is. And one of the things I used was a white noise machine. And that really helped to block out things like firetruck, police sirens.

you know, people blowing their horn. I lived on the corner of two busy streets and it was really amazing at how good this white noise machine is. So if you can and sleep is a problem, I mean the earplugs work, I suppose. I just don't like sleeping with things in my ears and I find the white noise machine works, you know, it optimize.

my sleep environment. The final tip that I have was, I gave it at the beginning, is that if you can, it's important to have a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed every night, consistency is key. And try to go to bed and wake up, even if you feel tired, to try to wake up at the same time. Because usually, after a couple of hours, you don't feel as tired.

J. Rosemarie Francis (15:46.793)

when you wake up in the morning. And so I hope these tips help you to gain better sleep, to improve your sleep, to get strength because when your body gets enough sleep, you're strong, your mind is healthy, you can think clearly, and you'll find that spiritually you have more clarity.

and can make better decisions. So I hope it helps you. And if you have the time, head over to jrosemarie.com and read some articles I've placed there to empower you as a solo mom. I've left the link below and I've left a few suggestions of articles that might interest you. Thank you for listening.