Tips for healthy, restful sleep
We’ve already covered why your sleep hygiene should be a top priority in our recent article, here. Needless to say, the amount you sleep is as important as your diet and exercise. Here are a few tips to help you when hitting the hay.
Keep a regular sleep schedule
As anyone who has had children can testify, keeping your new baby to a sleep schedule really works. We’re no different. We are creatures bound by circadian rhythms - mental, physical and behavioural changes that follow a daily cycle influenced by darkness and light.
One of the best things we can do is get in sync with our circadian rhythm and try to get to sleep more or less at the same time (and get up at the same time) every day. This is often most challenging at the weekends, dragging your sorry ass out of bed on a Sunday morning may take some more effort, but the rewards are well worth it.
Avoid electronics before bed
Scanning Twitter endlessly or staring slack-jawed at Facebook for your last dopamine hit exposes your body to artificial light and it’s this light that is setting your circadian rhythm. Specifically the blue light from phones, tablets and TVs is sending a strong signal to your brain that it should be awake right now. Avoid blue light exposure 1-2 hours before going to sleep. You can buy a pair of blue light blocking glasses which work quite nicely, install an app like f.lux that dials the blue light on your device down or simply knock the device on the head before bed time altogether.
Keep your bedroom dark
Like, really dark. Try to get your bedroom as dark as possible. Once you start looking, you’ll be amazed at how many electronic devices have some sort of light indicator on them somewhere. Get rid of them or cover them up. That bright alarm clock next to your face isn’t helping you get into a deep rapid eye movement (REM) sleep at all. Use light blocking curtains or blinds and use a sleep mask if needs be.
Try and exercise earlier if possible
This one isn’t ideal, sometimes the only time we have available to exercise is in the evening. Just know that your body needs to cool down a few degrees to go to sleep and those squats that you just did may elevate your core body temperature for the next 4 or 5 hours. The rule of thumb is to avoid exercise 3 hours before bed if you can. Getting your exercise in early in the day (outdoors in some nice bright daylight is best) is a great way to start the circadian day and have you ready to go to sleep at your usual time.
Manage your stress levels
The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis regulates your body’s hormonal response to stressful situations and this is directly linked to how you sleep. It’s important that you try and reduce your overall stress in your life. Focus on relaxing activities before bed and avoid work if possible (scanning those last-minute emails anyone?).
Meditation can work really well. It promotes relaxation, mental clarity and positive thoughts. Incorporate this, deep breathing or listening to music into a nightly routine to get you in the right frame of mind for sleep.
If you are struggling to sleep, don’t beat yourself up about it. Try and keep an overall relaxed attitude to sleep and tell yourself that you’ll make it up tomorrow night.
Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol
We all love a nice coffee in the morning but that double espresso you had at 5pm is going to keep you awake at bedtime. Caffeine has a 6-hour half-life, so one quarter of that cup you had a noon is still kicking around in your synapses at midnight. Italians never drink cappuccino after 11 am which seems a great rule that I try to stick to for all my coffees. The nicotine in cigarettes is a stimulant that can interfere with sleep as well so avoid later in the day (or just ditch it completely).
Having a couple of beers before bed may help you feel relaxed and get you off to sleep faster but too much alcohol hampers your ability to reach stage 5 REM sleep. This is the most restorative sleep stage. This is why when you have a big night, collapse into bed and sleep for 12 hours you still feel like a zombie the next day. An odd glass of wine with dinner is fine but lay off the flaming sambucas.
If you simply cannot sleep
Finally, if you’re still counting sheep 20 or 30 minutes after going to bed, get up and go to a different part of the house to relax. You want to associate your bedroom with sleep, not twiddling your thumbs. Read a book, listen to some calm music until you feel sleepy then give it another try.