BREATHABLE bedding
Breathable bedding in natural
fibres has been scientifically shown to help you sleep longer
including weekends. Just as I’m strict with my children at bedtime because I know it’s good for them to have a good night’s sleep, so I need to practice what I preach.
She suggests counting back eight and a half hours from when I wake up (5.50am on a good day) to allow for eight and a half hour’s sleep wind-down period, another important tip. Screens are out, of course, so after getting into bed, I read and then turn on Dr Robbins’ meditation. She takes me through breathing exercises and a visualisation – and it definitely gets me sleepy. Not quite enough to fall asleep straight away, but it’s helped clear my brain.
As for my nighttime wake-ups – instead of lying there hoping to drop off again, I need to get up. “When it comes to this wake-up, resist looking at your phone and get out of bed and try sitting in an armchair or in a cross-legged position on the floor and doing a meditation or visualisation exercise.” Studies, she says, show that getting out of bed in the middle of the night help you fall asleep 15 minutes quicker than if you stay in bed.
You’re also more likely to stay asleep if you’re in a cool room (18C) with a mattress and bedding made from natural fibres, which help regulate your body temperature further, according to a study reported in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I don’t wake up when I’m in my hotel room on my own, armed with the tips of a worldrenowned sleep scientist. I have the first full night sleep in over a year, and wake refreshed at my regular 5.50am. I text my husband: “The solution is I have to move into a hotel”; he’s had a bad night with the children and doesn’t find me funny.
I know it’s not the long-term answer to my problems, and I am still carrying a sleep debt that might have had untold bad effects on my brain. But I truly feel like I’ve had a sleep education from Dr Robbins. Which is exactly how she says we need to approach sleep. “There is an expectation that sleep should just come easily because it’s a natural process,” she says. “Then when it doesn’t, it can feel like something is wrong. But the truth is we need to learn how to sleep and how to prioritise it. Sleep is an investment, but one that will pay off,” she says. Just like children, we all need telling sometimes.