15-18.5 Build Resilience
15 Sleep Less – For A While
If you’re having a hard time getting shut-eye, reset your system by cutting your sleep window to between five-and-a-half and seven hours a night, suggests psychotherapist Annie Miller. This will help to get your sleep drive working once more. When you start falling asleep more easily, gradually increase your time in bed. (But if it’s bedtime and you’re not feeling tired, don’t try to sleep.)
16 Get Dreamy
If you can’t get back to sleep in the middle of the night, try to remember a dream, suggests Dr Rubin Naiman of the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. Recalling a dream helps you let go of wakefulness or ‘daytime consciousness’. According to Dr Naiman, ‘The memory of a dream will take you into dream consciousness, and then you’re on the bridge to sleep.’
17 (& ½) Develop A Sweet Disposition
Research suggests the average adult only manages 3.7 portions of fruit and veg per day. It’s a sorry statistic given a 2020 Nutrients review of studies found that eating more fruits and vegetables (at least five servings each day) may protect against depressive symptoms and boost optimism. Raising this total by a portion and a half – a small kiwi and a large banana – could give your wellbeing a notable boost.
18 Tell Someone How You Really Are
Designer Kenneth Cole is betting it’s been a while since you told someone how you really are, which is why he and a coalition of mental health organisations launched howareyoureally.org, an initiative to get people talking about mental health. There, you can watch testimonials from front-line workers, celebrities and many others discussing mental health, and add your story.