One of the first things I always want to figure out when somebody is looking for sleep advice is where the individual pain point is located.

To do so the easiest way, I want to invite you to digest yourself thinking in three special categories. These categories are simple, yet clear and powerful and will help you to set your focus right when it comes to tackling the true cause of your insomnia.

Give me the #3 categories

The categories that we are talking about are very simple. It’s the

1. body
2. nutrition and
3. mind!

That’s it. Every single problem that we have in regards to our sleep falls into one or more of these categories. Viewing the world through this lens will help you to focus on the right things to improve your sleep quality and give you clarity on where you are standing at the moment.

Body

Our body is very powerful. Our biorhythm, hormones, the daytime – nighttime cycle and any sensations that get delivered through our senses are hooked up to it. And there are a lot of things that can get out of sync in this area when it comes to our sleep.

Here are a couple of things that you want to check to get clear what role your body plays in your sleeplessness.

Do you have, experience:

• pain
• enough sunlight in the morning
• reduced light at nighttime
• noise in the bedroom
• wrong bedroom temperate (cooler than other rooms)
• wrong body temperature (feel hot or cold in bed)
• …

We live in our bodies and often we fail to listen to it because of high outside demands. Becoming quiet for 2 minutes will help you to get the answers here.

Nutrition

Our body needs 47 essential substances (vitamins, fats, etc.) to work properly. So here are a couple of things you want to answer for yourself when it comes to this category:

Do you have, experience:

• enough water intake
• eat healthy meals daily
• fresh fruits, veggies, nuts daily
• eat regularly
• don’t eat heavy too late

This category is a bit tricky. There are also natural substances that you can take to support your sleep and it is hard to figure out if you are really missing out on something important.

If you are eating healthy at the moment and think this category is part of your problem – best consult a doctor to get your blood analysed.

This will give you clarity!

Mind

Ultimately our mind defines who we are. Any kind of emotions or thoughts that are related to bad sleep fall into this category.

Do you have, experience:

• the belief you won’t be able to sleep
• worries, guilt, anger into your bed
• racing mind
• feel stressed over wide parts of the day
• are highly aware of waking up
• pressure yourself into sleep

Obviously, there are more things I could put onto the list here – but I think you get the concept.

How to move on

After you took a couple of minutes to read this article it is highly likely that you figured out a category that relates to your insomnia most.

Now you want to focus on this category!

Use the clarity you gained to do something that will improve your situation in this category. Don’t start to do too many things at the same time. Rather pick one or two things that you know will help you to improve this category.

Keeping things simple and achievable is the master for any success – and this is especially true when it comes to our sleep.

So, sleep well

Michael Hildebrandt

P.S. – The ‘practice’ (body, nutrition, mind) is the second building block of all of my coachings, just download the (free) Sleeptrust Sleep Map to get further guidance.