3 Tips for Parents to Avoid Burnout
Now we know all you parents feel the “back-to-school” whirlwind just as much as your kids. You’re doing the very best you can when it comes to juggling taking the kids to school, new schedules, trying to stay active and making nutritious meals for the family. And on top of working a full day you’re helping your kids with homework, making sure the entire family gets to bed at a decent time and fitting in quality time with your partner. There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day so you may find yourself giving yourself the short end of the sleeping stick. But it’s just as important for parents to get restful sleep as it is for babies and kids so these 3 tips are going to help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and allow you to juggle all of those things (and more).
TIP 1 - CAFFEINE
Now we’ll be the first to admit we love coffee, tea…iced, hot, anything and everything. Like many of you, it’s a part of our morning routine as much as waking up is. The thing that gets us with caffeine though is the timing of those pick-me-ups. With how busy you parents are it may feel like your battery or your energy reserves are depleted more days than not which is why you may find yourself reaching for your favorite caffeinated drink later in the day. Well, the thing about having coffee, tea or any other caffeinated drink in the afternoon is that the caffeine stays in your system for a lot longer than you may think. This is because caffeine has an average half-life of 5-7 hours. What does that mean? Let’s say that you have a cup of coffee after your lunch, around 3:30 p.m. This means that by 9:30 p.m. 50% of that caffeine may still be active and circulating throughout your brain. In other words, by 9:30 at night, you’re only halfway to completing the job of cleansing your brain of the caffeine you drank in the afternoon.
So if we take a step back and look at what our normal afternoon habits are, our 1st tip is to avoid caffeine after 2pm. This is really going to let your brain and body actually wind down when it’s time for bed. We’ve already discussed how important sleep is for kids in our The 3 Keys to Better Sleep For Kids video but just as importantly, you parents also need to be able to slow down to actually recharge because you’re the glue that holds the family together! This requires your brain to be able to pause so you can actually get restful sleep.
So instead of a caffeinated drink late in the afternoon we suggest fresh fruit or dried fruit after 2pm. We know this may sound absurd, “That’s not going to sustain me through the rest of the day!” But overtime, if you are able to progressively decrease your caffeine intake after 2pm you’ll find it will also get easier to fall asleep and actually get restful sleep. This means you will start with more energy at the beginning of the day and not feel the need to reach for that late afternoon pick-me-up. It will take time to break the caffeine cycle but it will be so worth it!
The reason why we suggest fruit is because its natural sugar provides a boost to wake you up. As far as fresh fruit goes, we love blueberries and raspberries because they are rich in antioxidants but anything citrus is great too because it can provide a juicy zing that helps wake you up. And as for dried fruit, make sure to check the ingredients and only choose ones that contain just the fruit itself, i.e. no added sugar.
TIP 2 - TECHNOLOGY
Our second tip is to stop using technology 3 hours before bed, specifically turn off those screens. You have probably already heard about the effects of blue light at night but we want to go into the science behind why this is so important. While blue light itself isn’t bad (the sun is actually a source of blue light), it’s about WHEN you’re exposing your eyes and brain to it. We have what’s called our “circadian rhythm”. This is also known as our internal clock and it’s responsible for a ton of things - sleeping, waking, hormone release, body temperature, digestion, blood pressure, blood sugar, just to name a few. This internal clock is influenced by our environment. What blue light does is it suppresses the pineal gland’s secretion of the hormone melatonin. Located in the middle of your brain, the pineal gland allows melatonin to be secreted which lets your brain know that it's time to go to bed, kickstarting that regenerative sleep that we all need. When melatonin secretion is suppressed, by blue light for instance, it can cause sleep deprivation. Your body won’t get the rest it needs which means your energy levels are going to start off way lower than they should at the beginning of the day.
On the flip side, blue light is actually good in the morning and during the day because it helps with alertness. But when your brain should be hitting that brake pedal at night, we want to limit blue light. Instead of watching TV or being on your phone what we recommend is reading, listening to an audiobook or listening to music. All of these are great options because they don’t require being in front of a screen and best of all they can be done with your kids too!
TIP 3 - TURN UP THE VOLUME ON YOUR VAGUS NERVE
One of the reasons parents tell us they are exhausted is because they are juggling so much that they are bogged down with stress. The unfortunate thing about stress is that it not only accumulates, but it compounds. If you think of a time that you’ve felt stressed, how likely was it that even the smallest thing irritated you? What’s more is not only does every new stress feel THAT MUCH more stressful but when we get overwhelmed or burnt out, sometimes we feel like we can’t even do the things we normally can do. We see this so clearly with kids - when they feel stressed and get past their breaking point they have meltdowns and tantrums. They can’t do anything but try to release the stress they are feeling. It’s the same with adults. It is just that adults don’t usually have meltdowns and tantrums (most of the time) - instead what we see with adults is that stress overload shows up as fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, lack of motivation, anxiety, depressed immune systems, among many other things. What’s really happening at a neurological level is your body’s stress response system, the nervous system, gets stuck in a fight or flight state or “sympathetic state”. The nervous system is the master control system of the body and it’s responsible for keeping everything in check. But when the nervous system gets stuck in a fight or flight state it forgets how to slow down and relax when nothing stressful is happening. When your nervous system can’t switch between pressing on the gas pedal and pressing on the brake pedal, it drains your entire body of the energy and resources it needs to do other things - proper immune function, digestion, metabolism, cardiovascular regulation and cellular regeneration. The biggest driver in being able to relax and hit the brake pedal is how well your vagus nerve is functioning. The function of the vagus nerve is critical because it maintains balance between the gas pedals and the brake pedal. Stress essentially turns the volume down on the vagus nerve which has implications to your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.
So our 3rd tip is rebalancing your body’s stress response system through chiropractic adjustments. We use something called INSiGHT Scans that help us see where you fall between the gas and the brake pedal, how your body is managing current stress and how well your body would be able to adapt to future stress. These scans are a part of our 3-Step Clinical Process and it allows us to know how long your care plan should be and how frequently you should be coming in. Each chiropractic adjustment reprograms your stress response system to recognize when it should slow down and relax so that you get the most out of the other two tips and anything else you’re doing for your health.
If you feel like you’re already doing everything you can to avoid burnout but can’t seem to let off the gas pedal, give us a call to learn how chiropractic can help. If you are ready to get more restful sleep, feel more energized and better keep up with your kids, book an appointment with us today!
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References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/#:~:text=The%20mean%20half%2Dlife%20of,et%20al.%2C%201989).