June 26, 2024
Most adults need an average of seven to nine hours of sleep each night. As well as enabling the daily repair cycle our body needs, sleep is critical for cognitive and emotional functioning. It's when our brains process the events of the day, consolidate memories, and rebuild the resources we need for attention, planning, and other executive functions.
If you're struggling to get enough sleep, these tips can help.
Prioritise
One of the most common reasons we sacrifice sleep is that we simply don't prioritise it. If you're feeling like you just don't have time for sleep, it may help to remember that it's a positive sum game: good rest makes you more efficient and more effective at whatever you need to do the next day. Without it, you're more likely to make errors, take longer to get work done, and be irritable with those around you. Sacrificing sleep is false economy.
Prepare
Another common reason for poor or inadequate sleep is continuing high-stimulation activity right up until bedtime. This might mean working up until the last possible minute, indulging in screen time in bed, or a high-intensity workout that elevates cortisol levels late in the evening.
Prepare for better sleep by setting a regular bedtime, and building a pre-sleep routine that helps to put your body and brain into rest mode. Try to leave at least a half hour for reading (on paper!), journalling, gentle stretching, a warm bath, a deep relaxation practice, or some combination of these.
You can also prepare your bedroom by making it as cool, dark and quiet as possible.
Postpone
The bookend to late screen time is early screen time. If your brain anticipates that the first thing you'll do when you wake up is check your phone, it will prime you for this action anytime you wake during the night. This can turn a brief period of wakefulness into a significant sleep disruption.
To undo this pattern, keep electronic devices out of the bedroom, and try to leave at least a half hour between waking and checking them in the morning.
Pause
If night sleeping is a problem, consider a short siesta. Deep rest for a short period during the day can be an effective reset when you start to get tired, even if you don't sleep.
Many podcasts offer free guided meditations or relaxation sessions. Just search for "yoga nidra", or "non-sleep deep rest." Look for sessions between 15 and 30 minutes long. Much shorter and the benefits will be limited; much longer and you may exacerbate night sleeping issues.
Politely decline
Alcohol and other drugs can seriously disrupt sleep quality - even if it feels like they're helping you get to sleep. Eating too close to bedtime can also make it harder to get good rest. And of course too much caffeine, or drinking it too late in the day, can keep you wired when you most need to unwind.
A polite no when you're tempted to partake will pay off later.
