Good sleep habits are vital for us during the pandemic

EVERYONE IS having to adapt to the conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and cope as best they can.

It is not easy when faced with being isolated from friends and family and when there is increased anxiety about how it is all going to pan out.

Sleep is critical to general wellbeing, physical health and to the functioning of the immune system.

The disruption of daily life can make it difficult to adjust, often because the daily schedule is missing.

Schedules give us anchor points in daily life. Indeed, we respond to many lightbased cues that influence our wakefulness and our sleep.

These are called zeitgebers, and they are crucial to our circadian or biological rhythms.

Working from home in lockdown can disrupt these zeitgebers. If you don’t have the time schedule, you may be tempted to lie in, take the laptop and work in bed, watch lots of daytime tv and movies.

At the other end of the day you may watch YouTube late into the night.

You can in fact oversleep. Sleeping more than seven to eight hours per night can make waking up on time much more difficult, even if you use an alarm.

If you oversleep you may feel groggy, irritable and have difficulty focusing on the day.

A good night’s sleep is good for the body’s defences. It is worth for the future that there is some research that suggests that lack of sleep can reduce the efficacy of some vaccines.

During the pandemic it makes sense to establish a routine to try maintain a sense of normalcy.

To begin, try to have a regular waking and getting up time. Then try to get the other anchors right. Try to avoid chaos in meal timings, snacking and catnapping during the day.

Establish a winding down time in the evening.

That is sufficient time to relax before going to bed.

Do the things that are relaxing, like reading, doing the crossword, getting into pyjamas and brushing your teeth.

Going to bed and preparing for sleep should be looked forward to.

It is worth establishing a time for lights out.

This is very useful because it creates the association between bed and sleep.

Avoiding screen time in bed is good, because that really tends to confuse your zeitgebers.