Sleep is something we don’t always prioritise for our health, in the way that we do exercise and diet. However, it is so important for our overall health, including both physical and mental. During sleep our body does a lot of its repair and recovery, benefits our cardiac function, brain development, metabolism and supports learning. A good night’s sleep is also very beneficial to general mood, reaction times and can improve our concentration which can reduce accidents and injuries.
In uncertain times when our levels of uncertainty and stress are high your sleep routine might be impacted negatively. Changes in our daily routine during COVID and increased levels of anxiety may impact the quality of sleep many of us are getting. However, times like these it is even more important to try and maintain good sleep hygiene and aim for approximately 8hours of sleep.
Some simple strategies may assist you with achieving a good night’s sleep:
Stick to a good sleep routine, go to bed at a similar time each night and wake at a similar time most days. Disjointed sleep routines can disrupt our circadian rhythm. That also means avoid sleeping in on the weekend.
Regular exercise, aerobic exercise can promote a good night's sleep, but avoid exercising too close to bedtime.
Avoid stimulants such as coffee. Limiting your coffee intake to before 2pm can positively affect your sleep quality.
Limit your alcohol consumption. Alcohol can impact the quality of your sleep. Alcohol may assist you to fall asleep more quickly, but it impacts the quality of your sleep later into the night and limits your restorative sleep.
Switch off technology including your phone, computer and other bright lit devices at least 30min-1hr before bed. The blue light emitted from your phone, TV and computer can interrupt the production of melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy.
Leaving your phone to charge overnight away from the bedroom can also be very beneficial as it can be less tempting to look at during the night and will mean you can’t scroll through Instagram and Facebook before going to sleep.
Make your bedroom for sleeping, remove the TV and don’t do work from bed, that way your body will know that it’s bedtime. Make sure your room is dark, quiet and a comfortable temperature.
If you tend to have a lot of thoughts that keep you from falling asleep, writing them down can help.
If you are finding it hard to doze off, getting up and reading a book and then going back to bed may help.
The above strategies can be very useful to assist with better sleep hygiene/routine. However, it is also important to try not to worry too much about falling to sleep. If you are having difficulty falling asleep and keep checking the clock and anxious about drifting off, it will in turn make falling asleep more difficult. Relax and know that you will doze off at some stage.