Get some rest to be your best in 2019
BY MAX FREEMAN-MILLS PLENTY of us will be making lifestyle changes to ring in the new year – but how many have resolved to sleep better in 2019? Yet slumber is a part of your life that experts agree needs protecting.
Riffing on the ideal of “clean eating”, the “clean sleeping” movement has a simple premise, with potentially complex implementation.
In effect, it says you should make it your mission to get at least seven or eight hours of good quality sleep every night.
The Sleep Council’s 2017 report found 74 per cent of Brits sleep less than seven hours per night, while 30 per cent of men and 20 per cent of women are turning to booze to help them nod off – hardly a healthy trend.
Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, a sleep expert from Silentnight, said that after clean sleep, “we wake up feeling refreshed, invigorated and looking forward to the day ahead”. In practice, it means getting yourself into a set of healthy, or at least regular habits, like clockwork.
The body’s circadian rhythms love nothing more than consistency. So, even if 10pm is too ambitious a bedtime, making sure you hit the mattress at roughly the same time every night will make a difference. Once you’ve got that bedrock, you can start to build healthy habits.
It can also be useful to refrain from eating before bed, which means no more late-night, guilty-pleasure chocolates. A common tactic in the modern age is to cut down on screen use in the evenings, and in particular in the hour before bed.
Dr Ramlakhan said: “You need to stop looking at your phone an hour before you go to sleep. That may even mean banning your phone from the bedroom and investing in an alarm clock.”
Another point to bear in mind is that the number of hours you sleep is devalued if you’re doing it in discomfort, so do ensure your bed and bedding are in good condition, cosy and comfortable.