13 Tips to Improve Your Sleep
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead!” A few years ago that was my badge of honour. The funny thing is, not sleeping is exactly the thing that was sending me to an early grave [1]. Sleep is so underrated by society and yet it’s so important for our health. When you sleep your body clears toxins from your brain and repairs damaged cells in your body.
My dad was a firefighter and when I was a kid he’d work a full day at his second job, then go off to night shift, then work another day and another full night. “Only lazy firemen have one job”, that was the common rhetoric in the fire brigade. Now, while firefighters have beds at their station and sometimes sleep at work, my dad was at one of the busiest stations in the city. Of course some nights were busier than others and even if his truck didn’t get called out, without fail one of the other trucks would get a call, which would mean loud alarm sounds and the lights on in his bedroom multiple times a night.
My dad was pretty fit, he had to be as a firefighter. He was a bit of a stress head, he liked a beer after a hard days work and he just happened to die of a heart attack at the ripe old age of 48. At the time it felt like he’d lost the genetic lottery. But as I’ve learnt over the last few years; our genes do not determine our fate. This is one of the hardest pills to swallow. It’s now painfully obvious to me that his lack of sleep was a major contributing factor to his sudden and early death.
The sad truth is my dad is now just a statistic; emergency service workers, nurses and night shift workers are prone to sleep deprivation and are therefore at high risk of developing heart disease [2], diabetes [3] and Alzheimer’s [4]. But even if you don’t do that kind of work you still might not be getting enough sleep. And you too could become another statistic.
I can’t begin to tell you how seriously I now take my sleep. And happily, I’ll tell you that getting more sleep has not only improved my mood, my periods and my stress levels but I know it’s also safeguarding my body and brain for the future.
There are 4 stages of sleep and deep sleep (the third stage) is what you need for your brain to flush out toxins and repair damaged cells. Deep sleep is the stage right before REM sleep, that’s when you dream. Dreaming is also super important for your brain to process emotions and lucid dreaming in particular is associated with feeling more energised in the morning [5]. So short of getting yourself a sleep tracker (which are great) you can make an educated guess on how good your sleep is simply by noticing if you did or didn’t dream.
Here are my 13 Tips for Better Sleep:
Set a bedtime alarm! I go to bed at 10pm, so I set my alarm for 9pm.
Turn off all screens an hour before bedtime.
Eat your last bite of food at least 3 hours before bed and ideally eat a light meal for dinner.
Turn off most of the lights in your house, get dark and cozy when the sun goes down. And if you can switch to candles or non-flicker red lights you’ll feel more sleepy.
Make your bedroom dark and cool - this is my Goldilocks Method. Use black out blinds, pop a snake under your door or if you can’t do that an eye must is a must. Keep your bedroom temperature low at around 19 degrees.
Get sunlight first thing in the morning, get it into your eyes and onto your skin.
Exercise every day - this is best to do in the morning.
Eliminate coffee and caffeine in the afternoon and night - allow 8 hours for caffeine to leave your system before bedtime (it can be even longer for some people).
Avoid alcohol at night - it may help you get to sleep but it won’t allow you to get into a deep sleep.
Concentrate on hydrating during the morning and afternoon - waking up to go to the toot isn’t going to help you get a good night sleep. On that note, stay away from chamomile and ‘sleepytime teas’ yes they may help you get to sleep but chamomile is a mild diuretic.
Don’t nap in the afternoon - sleep pressure is real, let it build so you naturally want to go to bed at night.
Give yourself time to relax before bed - read a book, meditate or get busy between the sheets.
Get a pair of blue light blocking glasses and wear them after the sun goes down. You’ll look like a bit of a nerd but they are amazing! They totally changed my sleep game, highly recommend.
Getting good quality sleep regulates your circadian rhythm (your sleep wake rhythm). Which in turn does wonders for your infradian rhythm (your menstrual cycle rhythm) because the two are not mutually exclusive. So better sleep equals better periods.
***
Need help putting these 13 Tips into action? That’s my job - I’m a Health Coach and I help people change their habits in order to live happier healthier lives. Curious to find out more? Head over to my bookings page and book in a free discovery call now.
References:
Cappuccio, F. P., D'Elia, L., Strazzullo, P., & Miller, M. A. (2010). Sleep duration and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Sleep, 33(5), 585–592. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/33.5.585
Wang, D., Li, W., Cui, X., Meng, Y., Zhou, M., Xiao, L., Ma, J., Yi, G., & Chen, W. (2016). Sleep duration and risk of coronary heart disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. International journal of cardiology, 219, 231–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2016.06.027
Nagai, M., Hoshide, S., & Kario, K. (2010). Sleep duration as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease- a review of the recent literature. Current cardiology reviews, 6(1), 54–61. https://doi.org/10.2174/157340310790231635
Lloret, M. A., Cervera-Ferri, A., Nepomuceno, M., Monllor, P., Esteve, D., & Lloret, A. (2020). Is Sleep Disruption a Cause or Consequence of Alzheimer's Disease? Reviewing Its Possible Role as a Biomarker. International journal of molecular sciences, 21(3), 1168. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21031168
Schredl, M., Dyck, S., & Kühnel, A. (2020). Lucid Dreaming and the Feeling of Being Refreshed in the Morning: A Diary Study. Clocks & sleep, 2(1), 54–60. https://doi.org/10.3390/clockssleep2010007
