Getting your head down for a better night’s sleep
As many adults experience more vivid dreams during lockdown, establishing a regular sleeping pattern is particularly difficult right now.
Not getting enough sleep can seriously impact your physical and mental health.
And regularly disturbed sleep can also disrupt your performance and mood during the daytime.
Fortunately, there are a range of simple lifestyle changes we can make that can help us both get to sleep earlier and improve the quality of our sleep.
There is help for those who are struggling to switch off after a day of working remotely and spending more time indoors.
Total Fitness Fitness Development Manager Steven Virtue here shares insight into the best habits to incorporate into your daily routine to help regulate your sleep pattern.
Careful consumption
before bed
Limit caffeine and high energy snacks before bed.
Although a post-work coffee might be an appealing pick-me-up, research suggests that you should stop consuming caffeine at least seven hours before bed. Become more active Introducing exercise to your daily routine and increasing your activity levels can help to prepare your body for a good nights’ sleep.
When you exercise, your body breaks down energy stores, works muscles to the point of fatigue, and takes our body outside its resting normal state.
It is normal to feel a sense of physical fatigue after exercising and this will help you to feel ready for sleep in the evening.
An increase in your level of physical activity will also increase the amount of time spent in deep sleep, which is the most physically restorative phase of sleep.
Go to bed at a reasonable time
Make sure you are going to bed at a time which allows for seven-eight hours of sleep.
One week of consistent seven to eight hours sleep
will help your body adjust to a new sleep schedule.
Create the perfect sleep environment
It is important that your room is at a comfortable temperature and as pitch-black as possible.
Even a little light can supress the secretion of melatonin, stored in the pineal gland of the brain and helps to control your sleep schedule through encouraging sleep.
Try listening to white noise
Our brain craves input so a noiseless room with occasional random sounds or vibrations can disrupt our sleep cycle.
However, the constant sound of the sea, relaxing music or even a fan will keep a constant flow of ambient sound which can actually improve sleep quality.
Reduce your screen time
The blue light spectrum,
naturally found from morning and high noon sunlight, suppresses the production of melatonin and thus discourages sleep.
This is why using electronics such as mobile phones and laptops, of which almost all use a blue-light, often disrupts your sleep readiness and thus ought to be avoided just before bed.
Connect with a personal trainer
A personal trainer can assess your lifestyle and help identify new habits to embed into your life, and existing habits to eliminate, which could have a direct, positive impact on sleep.
They will also hold you to account and offer support in developing and maintaining the new habits.
Create a bedtime ritual Establishing a bedtime routine teaches our brain and nervous system when it is time to wind down.