Sleep, Menopause and CEAM

Sleep, Menopause and CEAM.

Hello and welcome to my podcasts Ancient Wisdom, ModernHealth: Reaching the Balance within. This podcast is Sleep, Menopause and CEAM.

As we go through this podcast there will be references to documents that are available on my website, “sagire.com.au" in the members area.

 What I would like to talk about in this podcast is the importance of good quality sleep, its impact on our health, and more specifically, 

how poor sleep and menopause are interwoven, and what you can do to help improve your sleep quality, and in so doing, increase your ability to bring Balance back to your health and so become your own Health Champion.

Sleep is something that healthy people usually take for granted.

However, if the quality of your sleep is poor, then so is you health, and  the number of my menopause patients that have anything but a good sleep pattern is the reason why this subject is so important to understand, and get a grasp on the what, and why your sleep patterns are affected by menopause.

 The important word here was quality, it is quality over quantity every time. The measure of whether your sleep is good, is not how long you sleep, but whether or not you wake rested. If you wake rested, then your mind and body have been able to rejuvenate. 

So if you wake up in the mornings and feel tired after 8 hours of ‘sleep’ it would suggest to me that the fatigue you feel is not physical, but mental. What does this mean?

 If you wake feeling tired after lying down for 8 hours, then to think that you are physically tired, makes little sense or logic. The body has been resting and able to re-energise. So, the conclusion, then is that it is a symptom that the mind is not getting its required down time.

Your mind is trying to say that it has not had an opportunity to recharge, and as such is still tired, lethargic, and can’t provide the drive for the body.

 It does in fact want you to not engage with the outside world yet.

So the mind and body are not in harmony, and are not balanced. So to measure good sleep by time alone is not helpful. We need to think of sleep as a way to re-invigorate the mind and body. When this is done then we are in balance.

So, our first symptom to put into our list of poor sleep pattern indicators is; we are waking tied, not mentally refreshed. This is something that should be put in our sleep diary. Available in the members area at sagire.com.au 

It is important to keep a record of our sleep patterns so that we can start to see if any patterns might exist, and also it is easier to remember the relevant details in the morning as against days or weeks later. We would also perhaps need to take a look at possible reasons as to why that poor nights sleep might have happened. This is where we can look back at yesterday and try and make any connections that could be seen as triggers.

A few known triggers of a ‘bad’ sleep are;

1. if your hormones aren’t in balance. How do you recognise this? Well, from a western stand point, symptoms could be; 
1. cycle connected acne,
2. breast tenderness,
3. mood swings,
4. spotting, and
5. if you are not menopausal, but peri-menopausal some periods still, and 
6. when in peri-menopause it is still possible to have hormonal cycles but not have a period;
2. a diet that is not appropriate, this could be things that are quite obvious, like; 
1. a large meal,
2. a heavy meal,
3. a rich meal, or
4. a spicy one.
3. it might also be something less obvious, such as;
1. foods that have had a stimulating effect, for example,
1. simple sugars,
2. alcohol,
3. some onions, or perhaps,
4. Garlic, just to name a few.
4. digestive disturbances;
1. such as bloating,
2. rumbling,
3. belching,
4. even cramping; All these signs and symptoms can go into the diary so that they can help to identify things that are not obvious triggers for you in particular. A food does not necessarily have create a reaction within the body so strong that it goes into an allergic response to be bad for you. Some foods can cause our bodies to be ‘sensitive.’ So our response is not strong enough to be diagnosed as an allergy, but nun the less our body would prefer that we don't partake in this food.
5. stress that is not under control.

 Now, I am sure that all of you have got all the stresses in your life under control, however, in the modern world in which we live, everyone is under stress, it is just a matter of how much and how our bodies are reacting to that load, so again, keeping a good diary, in which you can document, reflect and keep track of the things that have happened, are due to happen, how you feel prior, during and post events or activities is important. For this is how you can actually see how your body is coping.

 I will stress here, this is a personal diary and there is and must be no self judgements, just a means to honestly have a way of being able to watch and analyse how you are moving through your world. This is how we can see what is needed to reach that all important, Balance! 

So what can be done to encourage a ‘good’ nights sleep?

1. establish a regular routine. Going to bed and getting up at the same time, these habits can educate the body to a balanced system and allow it to know what it is supposed to be doing at any point in time. And if we have a regular pattern, then we can see when it changes, and how it changes. Without that we are just looking at random information that has no basis from which to measure.
2. reduce blue light exposure, this is a new problem from the modern world. There are plenty of studies that link the amount of blue light exposure to a poor ability to shut the mind down. My preference is to remove all blue light sources from the bedroom. If you must have your phone in there, then place it in ‘do not disturb’ mode until you get up. To put it plainly, the bedroom is a place that we need to create as a place that the mind and body can shut down and reboot. For sleep is the time for both to heal. Neither can do that whilst awake.
3. this leads into the importance of allowing time for the mind to slow down. It takes time for the mind to slow, to wind down to a quiet place were peace and tranquility can be achieved. This is so that it can turn inwards and re-energise. Initially, this is not an easy task. I think of the mind as one of those old fashioned flywheels made of stone. When I was a young boy, they where used to sharpen axe blades. They had a handle and had to be turned until they reached a speed. You could then stop turning the handle and they would continue to spin for ages. This is my picture of the mind. We spend all day turning the handle, and then expect it to stop when we want to go to bed, without allowing time for it to slow. 
4. So, in the beginning, we need to give it sufficient time to slow, and also learn how to help it slow. Simple things to avoid are;
1. don’t watch exciting stimulating programs on TV,
2. don’t read similarly stimulating books, or articles,
3. don’t play games on your phone or any other device, especially the mind stimulating types,
5. what can help slow the mind;
1. listening to music that is quiet, and calming,
2. do some Yoga,
3. Tai Chi, or
4. meditation, 
5. take a relaxing bath.

 I did say earlier that it is my preference that all blue light items should not be in the bedroom, however, if needed, they could be use to play music. In a simple manner, what the music is not so important, except that it needs to be appropriate to quietening the mind and spirit. There is a lot of interest recently in frequency music. This is where sounds at certain frequencies are played whilst sleeping or meditating to ‘tune’ into certain aspects or areas within the body to help it heal. This is not a new concept at all. Different cultures and healing practices have been using sounds, vibrations for centuries. The simple theory revolves around, that everything, and I do mean everything in the universe has what is called its resonant frequency. 

 This is a big area of discussion and can easily be a podcast in and of itself, so I am going to just touch on it now. If you want more then let me know, via the members area on sagire.com.au or any of the other means listed in the podcast description. 

 Basically, Physics says and has shown that all matter is made up of particles and every particle is in constant movement, and that movement has a frequency. Frequency is the common language of;

• light,
• sound,
• heat,
• smell, and in our discussion
• organs, and emotions.

So, if we know what frequency is the frequency of an organ when it is functioning in a healthy balance manner, then if we listen to that sound or music, then we can increase its ability to heal. 

 Next, it is important to getting enough sunlight so that your circadian rhythms can be triggered into their correct phase. This can also help with Vitamin D, which is know to be a ‘feel good’ element.

 An important point here in regard to getting enough sunlight, is that the strongest influence on your circadian rhythms is dawn and dusk. In CEAM, these two times of the day are the most potent as this is where the energy changes from Yin to Yang at dawn and Yang to Yin at dusk. It is the transition of energy that is the most powerful. 

 Limiting caffeine intake later in the day, is important, as it is a stimulant and it takes time for the Liver to metabolise it out of the blood. There is nothing wrong with caffeine, but it is important to remember that it is a stimulant and it takes time to be eliminated from the body. 

 Be mindful of eating close to retiring, this can cause the body to be ‘ramping up, to digest food,’ not slowing down for rest.

 I believe that keeping a sleep diary (any health diary at all really) can help identify any patterns in your sleep that may be helpful. In the world of CEAM we can also use it to overlay it onto the Organ Clock.

Placing any patterns of wake periods into the Organ Clock can show us what organs are being overly stimulated. This; when combined with other symptoms, can help us to workout a treatment plan. 

 The Organ Clock has been used in popular media as a simple plan to look at the time of day or night and say that it is such and such a time, therefore that is what is the problem. As a common example, between 1am and 3 am is Liver time, or the time of Wood, therefore when you wake at approximately that time, then your liver is at fault.

 Well, in a simple world, that is correct, however, the real question that comes from that, is why? Why is the liver not behaving? Here, I will use the 5 Element Theory as a framework with which to shed light on how an answer might be obtained.

  Is it due to the the water element, Kidneys not supporting the child, or, perhaps, the Child of Wood, which is the Fire Element, the Heart, being deficient and asking to much of the mother, or, perhaps, the Metal Element, the Lung is controlling the Wood Element. Each of these different scenarios can and does cause someone to wake at that time, however, it is important to be able to combine the entire picture so as to achieve and effective solution, one that will provide a quality nights sleep, and bring back Balance.

 So far I have dealt with the physical aspects of what is possibly causing a poor night sleep. Lets, now lets look at the why the body might end up being so affected. The place to start, is always the individuals symptom list, but lets try to keep it a little straight forward. Lets suppose that the time of waking is between 2 and 3 am most nights.

 From the Organ clock we know that that is called ‘Liver time.’ So what can cause the Liver to disturbing our sleep. If, there is some associated palpitations, and a feeling of impending doom, anxiety or fear. Then we need to think that there may be a link between this ‘Liver’ time and the Kidneys, however, if there is none of those symptoms, but instead, hot sweats and a need to change the sheets, then we can see a connection between the Liver or Wood Element and the Heart or Fire Element, however, what if there is no specific time of waking, just waking exhausted every morning. 

 This could be that the Shen is not quietening through the night. The Shen resides in the Heart system, and a disturbed Shen could indicate that the mind, the Shen, was not able to slow to a quiet placed and is still racing or perhaps, that there are some heat patterns causing the Shen disturbance, or a combination of both. 

Another simple scenario, if the room is too warm, then the Shen will not find rest and so, there could be vivid dreaming, or some restlessness that will show as sleep that is not restful. 

 In these examples I have deliberately kept it simple, but the reality is rarely so straight forward. Within the CEAM framework, Menopause is ideally treated from a young girls first period through to her last. Then menopause is quite a simple straight forward condition, its a change from one health state to another. So what should be the expectation of a good, normal healthy period. 

1. Regular, around 28 day, a day or two either side is acceptable,
2. 3 - 5 day of bleeding,
3. no cramps,
4. no mood swings,
5. no clots,
6. no breast tenderness,
7. no LBP, 
8. no headaches,
9. no diarrhoea,
10. It should be simple a point on a calendar, totally uneventful.

 How many women don’t have this, and have been told, or led to believe that the opposite of this is normal, or worse, feel that it is theirs to accept for that is what it means to be a woman! 

Again dairies for sleep, activity, pain, and moods are available in the members area on the web site, Sagire.com.au,

 Once again, thanks for coming and listening to the end of my podcast on Sleep, Menopause and CEAM as part of my Ancient Wisdom, Modern Health: Reaching the Balance within series of Podcasts. If you have anything that you wish to have more information on, or a topic expanded on, please let me know by contacting me through one of the links in the podcast description, or through my website, sagire.com.au

 See you next time for Ancient Wisdom, Modern Health, Reaching the balance Within.