How to Guide: Better Sleep
Jan 16, 2021
It is hard to overstate the importance of sleep. The benefits are well-documented: alleviates chronic stress and anxiety. Allows for clearer thinking. Makes it easier to lose weight by curbing cravings.
But many of us struggle to get quality sleep each night. Sure, we may fall asleep easily enough, but staying asleep can be another matter altogether. And you’d better hope that you don’t wake up in the middle of the night because getting back to sleep can be incredibly difficult. For some reason, it’s easy to finally fall back to sleep 15 minutes before your alarm goes off…but that’s only after you’ve rehashed every bad moment of the past week, ruminated on how you could have handled a situation differently, cured cancer, and mentally reorganized the pantry.
It’s a new year and many of us have big plans for the upcoming year, so it is imperative that we take care of our mind and body. Because sleep is vitally important, here are my top tips for a better night’s sleep:
1. Turn off the tech 2 hours before bed. This one is number one for several reasons. First, that little blue light that your phone and iPad and laptop emit messes with your circadian rhythm. It tricks your brain into thinking that it needs to be alert and “on” instead of winding down for sleep.
Second, you don’t need to intake all of the information you’re taking in…right before bed. Just like nothing good happens in a bar after 11.00pm, there is nothing that you need to consume on your phone before bed.
Think about it: do you think that reading an opinion piece about the latest political spat will help you sleep better? What about finding yourself in a social media rabbit hole, trying to figure out what your loser boyfriend or that mean girl from high school are doing with their lives now?
The same goes for work. There is nothing you can do about a late-night email from a boss, colleague or client. Most of the time, they’re simply sending the email because it’s when they had time to send it. They aren’t expecting a response from you until the next workday. (And if your clients and coworkers expect you to respond to emails at all hours of the day and night, then you need to work on setting more reasonable expectations and boundaries…but that’s a topic for a different day.) There is no need for you to check your email before you go to bed. It will only serve to hype you up, frustrate you or cause you anxiety. I’m sure you realize that hype, frustration and anxiety are not good for lulling you to sleep.
2. Make sure your phone is in “Bedtime” mode before you fall asleep. Because many of us use our phone as an alarm clock and because there is no phone hardwired in our homes, it makes sense to leave your phone on the bedstead at night. But if you’re receiving text messages or phone calls late at night, your sleep will be interrupted.
If you have an iPhone, there is a great feature call “Bedtime” mode as part of your alarm settings. When the phone is on “Bedtime” mode, the phone goes dark and does night light up when emails or messages are received. Additionally, all calls and texts are silenced. The one exception is emergency calls. (I’m sure there is something similar with an Android phone, but I don’t know what’s called or where it’s located.)
While it would be altogether better to keep the phone out of the bedroom, that’s not feasible for many of us. “Bedtime” mode is a good alternative.
3. Read a book and use a meditation app. A good night’s sleep begins even before you close your eyes. There are many ways to prepare for sleep that can quiet your mind and tell your brain that it’s time to wind down. Two of my favorites are reading and meditating.
Reading a book is so much more relaxing than watching TV in bed. (See #1.) :) I’m a fan of reading book-books before bed. I know many people who love their e-readers, but I struggle with them because of the eye strain from the light…even when they are fully dimmed. Do whatever works best for you.
I fall asleep to a meditation app every night. Mediation is used to quiet the mind and to systematically relax the body. There is something about focusing on breathing and relaxing each part of the body that triggers sleep. It helps me get to sleep and stay asleep longer. The Peloton app has a great library of meditations ranging from 5 to 30 minutes. I also like Relax Lite app.
4. Watch what you eat and drink before bed. On a perfect day, I eat dinner at least 3 hours before bed. Unfortunately, most days aren’t perfect, but I sleep much better if I avoid a lot of heavy food before bed. If you struggle with heartburn, I’d recommend that you avoid spicy food before bed, too.
Although there are significant health benefits to drinking enough water during the day, it’s best to taper off the water consumption a couple hours before bed…unless you don’t mind getting up to pee every couple hours.
Obviously, it also makes sense to avoid caffeine drinks before bed, but there is something about a warm drink that feels so soothing before bed. I do love me an herbal tea an hour or so before I go to sleep.
Many people also swear by melatonin for insomnia. Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone in the body that regulates sleep-wake cycles. Some people who have trouble sleeping have low levels of melatonin, so it is thought that adding melatonin supplements may help them sleep. I haven’t personally tried melatonin, so I can’t vouch for it.
I’d love to hear other tips and tricks that work for you, and I’ll be sure to pass them along. Sweet dreams, my friends!
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