Have you said, “I’m so tired!” lately? Ask any parent of a new born, a long haul traveller, a shift worker or a teenager, and they’ll tell you how much they value a good night’s sleep. Quality sleep improves your brain performance, mood, and health. Not getting enough sleep consistently raises the risk of a range of health issues such as heart disease, stroke, obesity and dementia. Sleep helps your body repair itself, and your brain to remember, be creative and “catalogue” your day. So if you spend the night tossing and turning, some sleep hygiene practices could really make a difference to you.
If you’re looking for an uninterrupted, refreshing sleep, try these tips:
1 Set up a bed time routine
Parents put a “bath, teeth, bedtime story” routine in place for their small children because it works. Just because you’re over 18, doesn’t mean you’ve outgrown the need for a predictable wind-down process before going to bed.
2 Turn screens off
Part of that winding down is turning off screens at least an hour before going to sleep. Books, calming music and journalling are all good alternative activities. Put your phone on silent before getting into bed. Chimes and message notifications will disturb you during the night, and interrupt your sleep pattern.
3 Temperature and light
Make the room as dark as possible, and set the temperature to a comfortable level; cooler is better than warmer. White noise helps some people sleep, so turning a fan on or a sound machine might work well for you.
4 Turning your brain off
If your brain goes into overdrive as soon as your head hits the pillow, you’ll need to find a way to “turn it off”. A good strategy is to stop tossing and turning, get up and externalise your thoughts. You might like to journal for a while, send yourself an email so that you don’t forget to do something tomorrow, or talk to someone about your thoughts. Then, start your bedtime routine again and get back into bed to go to sleep.
5 Gently tiring yourself out
Some people will be shaking their heads reading this – they need no help to feel tired. Others will think they don’t have time to add one more thing to the list that needs to be done each day. However, you will sleep better if you’ve been exposed to some sunshine, if you’ve had some gentle exercise and if you haven’t had a long nap in the afternoon. Feeling tired makes bedtime something to anticipate rather than dread.
Good sleep is so beneficial that it’s worth working out how to get to sleep, stay asleep and wake up feeling refreshed (1). Of course, if the basic sleep hygiene strategies don’t work for you, see your GP to discuss it further.
(1) https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene
