Press Samples / Unpaid AD - Sleep With Ease With Pukka Herbs*

It's really hard, especially at the moment to overestimate the importance of sleep. We're all feeling a little bit frazzled, stressed out, and a little bit under the weather at the moment, and more often than not life's upsets are reflected in our quality of sleep.

Good sleep plays a huge role in both our physical and mental wellbeing, it's essential for cell regeneration, to recharge our cardiovascular system, and to support our immune system, as well as improving mental clarity, helping with decision making and helping us to cope with stress.

I probably struggle more than most with my sleep. Thanks to my struggles with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / CFS / ME and Fibromyalgia, I alternate between utter exhaustion, I can go without sleep for more than 24 hours, or I can sleep for 18 hours solid and still feel exhausted, there really isn't a lot of middle ground. 

Alongside medical advice and intervention, I'm always looking for new ways to improve my sleep health. I've tried a lot of things from acupuncture, to cognitive behavioural therapy, and various other little things that I'll mention later in this post, but I am always on the look out for new ways to help me sleep.

I was recently contacted by the lovely people at Pukka, and I was invited to take part in their "Sleep With Ease" campaign. If you haven't heard of Pukka, they are a substantial, ethical and organic herbal company that produce a wide range of herbal infusions that aim to benefit the health of people, plants and the planet and they very kindly sent three boxes of caffeine free, herbal blends from their range to help me on my quest for better sleep.

Pukka recognise the importance of sleep for our mental and physical health, and in an attempt to help us improve both our sleep health and our wider health, they have introduced their 7 day Sleep With Ease programme, which is specifically designed to help us create a space, pattern and routine to help us sleep better.

Designed to be used alongside their herbal blends, their website contains a whole load of information and downloads to help you eliminate bad sleeping habits, establish routine, and train both your body and brain to help you sleep better.As I say, I'm up for anything that can send me into the land of nod, so I decided to give the 7 day Sleep With Ease programme a try.  

The website features a downloadable sleep diary that you can fill in, as well as a list of changes that you can can make across the course of a the week to help you improve your sleep.

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The idea is that you introduce one new element everyday until all of the tips become a part of your daily sleep routine. Some of the tips as you can see are actually quite simple, and in theory they are, it's just about putting them into practise. 

My biggest issue sleep wise has always been with routine, going to bed late, sleeping late, and then wondering why I can't sleep at night. It makes total sense, go to sleep at roughly the same time of night, and wake up at similar team each morning. It takes a little bit of effort and I'm not going to lie dragging myself out of bed when I'm exhausted is difficult but after a few days it begins to feel normal, and now I can pretty much wake up without having to set an alarm.

Another thing that I have an issue with is technology, I have a tv and a dvd player in my bedroom and whilst I don't usually have my MacBook in my bedroom at night, I do have my phone, and my iPad plugged in, in my room, but the key is to have cut off times, plug things into charge by all means but don't check your phone, or start flicking through Instagram when you're trying to get ready for sleep.

We are all guilty of it, if it's not watching one more episode of a tv show, flicking through Facebook, or getting annoyed with someone on twitter, it's watching the late night news and depressing yourself. Sleep is all about de-stressing, and concentrating on something, or getting stressed and upset just sends your brain into overdrive when you really should be preparing for sleep, so switch off the tv, your computer, and phone for an hour or so before you go to bed and you really will notice a difference in your sleep health.

One of the other tips, that the team from Pukka recommend is to cut down on your caffeine consumption. I'm not a huge tea and coffee drinker compared to lot of people, but my nightly cuppa is definitely a thing, and even though tea usually contains less caffeine than coffee, it is still a stimulant and it could be disrupting your sleep without you realising.

The Pukka Sleep With Ease programme advises that you should try to avoid caffeine after 12pm, so instead of caffeine filled soft drinks, the odd latte, and iced coffees, I've switched to some of Pukka's caffeine free herbal blends including their Elderberry & Echinacea, which has lovely some fresh hedgerow berry, ginger, and liquorice flavours, their Lemon, Ginger and Manuka Honey blend, and their chamomile, fennel, and ginger flavoured Relax blend.

As part of their sleep programme Pukka recommend that you drink a mug of their 'Night Time' tea every night. So instead of my caffeine laden cuppa, at around 8pm, I've been drinking this blend of lime flower, chamomile and lavender flowers, oat flower tops, liquorice root and valerian root instead

Designed to help you unwind before bed, this particular tea is caffeine free and contains 28% fair wild ingredients, and 33% fair trade ingredients, the bags themselves are plastic free, are fully recyclable and compostable, and they also feature organic cotton strings.

All you do is pop your bag into a mug of boiling water, and then let it infuse for around 15 minutes before drinking. Given then floral ingredients such as lavender and chamomile I was expecting the Night Time blend to have more of a floral taste but instead it had a surprisingly sweet, pleasant, herbal liquorice / aniseed type flavour.

Drinking the tea at night immediately sent me into wind down mode. After drinking it I switched off my blue screen electronics, and usually had a warm (but not too hot) shower with a calming lavender based shower gel before settling into bed, and reading a non stressful book for an hour before using some pillow spray, and settling down with either a guided meditation (there is a nice short one on the Pukka website) or some nature sounds on a timer until I fall asleep.

These are things that work for me but you could also add other things to help you sleep including ear plugs, eye masks, a fan, a white noise machine, or a story app. Everyone is different, there are basic things that should help most people fall asleep but you just need to find out what works for you. 

I've now actually been doing the Pukka Sleep With Ease campaign for more than 7 days now and I can safely say that following some of the suggestions in the plan, keeping a sleep diary, and drinking in particular the Night Time tea has made a difference.

I've managed to establish a proper sleep / wake routine and I've tried to eradicate some of my bad sleep habits. As I say drinking the Night Time tea became a real signal to me that the day was coming to an end and that I should start winding down and preparing myself for rest and sleep.

Unfortunately due to medical reasons I potentially am always going to have issues with my sleep but thanks to Pukka I've been reminded that making small differences and creating a workable routine can really help me to get a better and more restful nights sleep.

If you're struggling with your sleep at the moment I would thoroughly recommend that you try Pukka's 7 day Sleep With Ease programme. You can find out more on their website and of course I would really recommend that you try some of Pukka's herbal blends to help you improve your own sleep, mental, and physical health at this stressful time. Pukka Relax, Pukka Night Time, and the Pukka Herbal Collection retail at around £2.79 - £3 for a box of 20 teabags from various retailers including Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Waitrose and Holland & Barrett.

 *Press Samples / Unpaid Advertisement / Promotion / Non Affiliate Links 

Collaborative / Partnered Post - Self Care And Self Healing - How To Deal With Stress And Trauma*

Coping with the negative emotions that come after experiencing some kind of stress or trauma can be really difficult. Whilst physical pain can often be controlled quite quickly, dealing with your emotions takes time, and whilst some feelings, especially those you experience after bereavement, never truly go away, the first step towards any sort of healing is to properly acknowledge and deal with what's happened. If you’ve recently found yourself in a distressing or stressful situation and are looking for ways to achieve a more confident and positive outlook, here are a few tips and ideas to help you deal with what ever the world throws at you.

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Professional Support Through Therapy

One of the biggest ways I've always found to deal with stressful and traumatic events is to talk about it -  I'm lucky to have supportive family and friend but sometimes that either isn't possible or it isn't appropriate. If the stress and emotion that you feel is getting out of hand and you feel as though you simply cannot deal with it alone, then it may be an idea to seek professional support through therapy with a counsellor or psychologist. There is so much stigma around seeking medical help for mental health issues, but there shouldn't be. Don't be frightened to consider seeking professional help - I've had CBT, and bereavement counselling in the past and for me it really was a lifesaver. Talking to a someone openly and without judgement can really help you to deal with any problems that you may have - it really helped me put things into perspective and it helped me to find way to manage and deal with my issues. Even if you do have family and peer support around you having a therapist will also add another friendly, helpful and unbiased face to your support network, and even things like attending appointments can play an important role in establishing a routine, which is something that can often go out the window after a bereavement or any other traumatic incident .

Try Your Hand At Meditation

Life is so busy now, and so stressful that it's important that we all take a bit of time out and do something to help us switch off from the world. From having a nap, to having a nice long bath, to even going to the gym there are so many ways in which individuals distress, but probably the most popular worldwide has to be the practise of meditation. Meditation can help you to pull yourself away from the past and live more in the present moment, which can improve the way you deal with your trauma and stress dramatically. It can also really help just to take your mind off things, as the main point of the experience is to clear your head of all thoughts to focus on calm and tranquillity. Though mastering the practise may be a little difficult, having something else that's so positive to focus on and put your efforts into can lift your mood noticeably. There are lots of apps and so on to help you meditate now, so it's worth having a look around to see what you can find. Many years ago now, when I was fit and healthy I used to practise yoga, and a key part of that was meditation. Meditation can be as simple as emptying your mind and staring into a candle flame (one of my favourite methods), or using your mind to take you to your happy place - control your breathing, imagine yourself on that tropical island and you can literally feel the tension melt away.

Research Alternative Ideas

When you stressed out or hurting emotionally there are lots of different methods and things that you can try, just to make life that little bit better. Depending on the kind of stress or trauma you experienced and the emotions that you feel, there are many different alternative methods that you can try. From psychic readings to guide you spiritually and to try and set your mind at rest, to special diets that are said to eliminate ‘negative’ foods that may cause more emotional pain, the possibilities are endless when it comes to seeking out something less traditional to help you deal with your troubles.  If something helps, then it’s worth doing, and that’s really the bottom line. If you find you are more stressed after reading, and shop for new glasses online, then if it works it is a good thing. Some of it might sound a little bit cranky or a bit left field but it's all about what works for you and what makes you feel better x From crystal healing, to yoga, to art therapy, and aromatherapy, whatever method you choose, just make sure that you are completely comfortable throughout the process, if you find something too distressing then try something else, the aim of whatever you do is to make you feel better not worse.

Whilst some things and emotions never truly go way, there are ways and means to make them more manageable, and to help you cope better with what lies ahead. Believe me I've been in some pretty dark places throughout my life, and I just want all of you to know that things can get better, they don't get better overnight but lots of self care, and lots of talking can certainly help you along the way. If you don’t think you can handle it all on your own don't worry, there is no shame in talking to a stranger and asking for help, there are lots of people out there who can offer you all of the support that you need, no matter what the issue x Always remember that you are not alone x

*Collaborative / Partnered Post