Tip 1: Have a wind down routine
We often want sleep to occur the moment we turn the lights out but that rarely is ever the case. Having a wind down routine will assist you in mentally and physically preparing for sleep so that the transition from awake to asleep is much smoother. Experiment with what works for you and create a routine that you can follow each night. A good place to start could be a 10-15min meditation (you can use a guided meditation app if you’re inexperienced with meditating), light stretching, reading a book in bed or having a warm shower. You can use combinations of these or other relaxing activities that suit you to build up a longer routine if that works for you.
We as parents know that anytime you find a bedtime routine that works for your baby, you’ll tend to stick to it regimentally if it means your baby will go to sleep with little fuss and effort. Well, we adults are no different, so finding a routine that works for you could make a difference in getting to sleep easily.
Tip 2: Maintain a cooler room temperature
To fall asleep the human body needs to reduce it temperature by 1 degree Celsius. Due to this factor it’s usually easier to fall asleep in a cooler room than a warmer one. It’s also easier to layer your bedding to find the right temperature in a cool room than it is to use minimal bedding in a warmer room as there’s usually only so many layers you can remove before you’re left with nothing.
thrae’s 100% Tencel Lyocell bedsheets assist your body’s natural thermoregulation by allowing heat and sweat to transfer from your body to outside the sheets. Your body uses sweat and vasodilation to cool your skin and help lower your internal temperature.
Tip 3: View natural daylight when you first wake up/Avoid excessively bright lights at bedtime
Your circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates your sleep/wake cycle and repeats every 24 hours. It responds to the environment by helping to activate wakeful promoting hormones in the daylight and rest/sleep promoting hormones (melatonin) as light starts to fade. Viewing natural daylight for 30-40mins when you first wake up and avoiding excessively bright lights at night time is a great way to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm.
A recent study with office workers showed an increase of 5-10% in sleep efficiency and a 30min increase in sleep duration by moving them into offices that face the sun in the morning. A pretty amazing result for such a simple change of habit.
Tip 4: Avoid caffeine late in the day
I’m certainly not a caffeine hater! There’s been many positive benefits shown through consumption of caffeine. However, like many things, timing and dose usually make the poison.
Caffeine works by blocking your body’s sleep signal chemical called adenosine. It only blocks the uptake of adenosine and not the body’s ability to create adenosine so when that caffeine wears off, usually there’s a large dose of adenosine into the body at once, which is otherwise known as ‘the caffeine crash’. Although you still may be able to get to sleep at night if you have caffeine late in the day, caffeine negatively impacts your ability to get into REM sleep (one of our most important cycles of sleep) and also negatively effects your sleep quality and efficiency. This means you still may be getting 7-8 hours of sleep, but the quality of that sleep will not be as efficient as if you had no caffeine left in your system, leaving the potential for you to wake up tired and lethargic and searching for even more caffeine the next day (a double-edged sword).
Caffeine has a half-life of 5-6 hours so if you consume 95mg (the quantity in the average cup of coffee), 47.5mg of that caffeine will still be in your system 5-6 hours later and it can take 10-12hrs to completely remove this caffeine from your body. An accepted target for better sleep is to have your last hit of caffeine 8-10hrs before your usual bedtime (if your bedtime is 10.30pm, then your last consumption of caffeine should be between 12.30pm-2.30pm). This can vary between individuals so practice always makes perfect.
Tip 5: Avoid alcohol
Alcohol is classified as a sedative so many people use alcohol at night to fall asleep. This process works by blunting your brain’s cerebral cortex. Unfortunately, sedation is not the same as sleep, so you may be losing consciousness quicker, but you’re not falling naturally into your sleep cycle any faster. Alcohol also has been shown to fragment your sleep, meaning it will have you waking up throughout the night a lot more than normal. Often more than you will realise as your mind will not always commit these small, disruptive wake ups to memory. This could leave you waking up feeling not restored by your sleep, regardless of how long you were in bed.
Similar to caffeine, alcohol also inhibits your ability to get into REM sleep. REM sleep is important for a variety of cognitive functions, aspects of learning and memory and also aspects of mental and emotional health. It’s been described as ‘emotional first aid’. Assisting our ability to be mentally and emotionally healthy. I think most of us would have experienced a less than ideal mental or emotional state after one or a couple of poor night’s sleep!
Wishing you a great night’s sleep
thrae