Top Tips to Get a Great Night’s Sleep!

This month is ‘National Sleep Month’, and with ‘World Sleep Day’ approaching on Friday 18th March, it seems a good time to talk about sleep.

Sleep is something we all do in some shape or form and is the foundation for so many aspects of our health, and life in general.  

However, it is one of the areas when it comes to our health that is often neglected, or could certainly be fine-tuned so we get the most out of it, which is why in this week’s blog I will be providing some insights into why sleep is so beneficial, along with some strategies you can implement to help get the best night’s sleep possible.

So why is sleep important?

High quality sleep helps your immune system, balances your hormones, boosts your metabolism, increases physical energy and improves the function of your brain. Pretty impressive! Studies have highlighted that just one night of sleep deprivation can make us as insulin resistant as a person with type 2 diabetes. This means it can cause us to age faster, decrease libido and cause us to store more fat to name a few. If this accumulates over weeks, months, and years, it really can cause our body issues long term.

And unfortunately, sleep loss is very common in today’s society. Evidence is now showing that people in Western countries are sleeping on average 1.5 – 2 hours a night less than we did a century ago.

The good news is there are many things we can do to help ourselves when it comes to maximising our sleep. Here are my top 6 areas of focus to help get a great night’s sleep:

1. Make it a priority:
Sometimes sleep is seen as something we just ‘have to do’ and an obstacle to work around. But if we see it as an opportunity to heal and repair, and reframe our perception of it making it a sacred time that allows us to work at our best, it can become something to look forward to and something that is prioritised like other areas of life. To help with this, planning when you are going to get to sleep and wake up is key, so that you can prepare in the time leading up to it and ensure you have enough sleep time.

It is recommended to get to sleep before 10pm, as the key time for restorative sleep happens between 10pm – 2am. We also sleep in cycles of 90 minutes, so thinking about this can help with the planning. Instead of the typical ‘8 hours sleep’, aim for 7.5 or 9 hours as you will likely wake feeling more refreshed if you are timing it to the natural sleep cycles.

Top Tips:

• Make sleep a priority – plan when you go to bed and when you are going to wake up. Getting to bed before 10pm is the ideal, and factor in the 90-minute sleep cycle.
• Reframe it from being a hassle to being a time to nourish you.

2. Get more daylight:
Our sleep cycle, also known as our ‘circadian timing system’ is impacted by the amount of sunlight we receive during the day. I know we live in the UK and it is often cloudy, but the good news is that even a cloudy day delivers 10 times more brightness than ordinary indoor lighting according to clinical psychologist Jeffrey Rossman. The light exposure signals part of our brain to release our daytime hormones (cortisol and serotonin) and our nighttime hormone melatonin (which helps us sleep) reduces. The daylight helps these hormones to fluctuate optimally, so that as we approach darkness and evening, the daytime hormones decrease and nighttime increases.

Top Tip: Try and get at least half an hour of daylight exposure per day. Between 6am – 8:30am has been shown to be the most optimal time to do this to help with our hormones.

3. Avoid Screen Use:
The artificial blue light emitted by electronic devices triggers our body to produce more daytime hormones (such as cortisol) and disorients our body’s natural preparation for sleep. Research has shown that just 2 hours of screen time before bed is enough to significantly suppress our nighttime hormone melatonin, which can throw off our sleep cycles.

Top Tips:

• If you want to get a great sleep, turn off all screens at least 90 minutes before bed. Read, talk, chill, whatever you want to do, but no screen use!
• If you do need to use a screen, blue light blockers which you can find for screens of glasses can be helpful, but ideally no screen use is the best option.

4. Be mindful of food and drink:
What we eat and drink during the day and before bed can impact the quality of our sleep. Research suggests that having caffeine 6 hours before bed, can significantly impact our restorative sleep and in one study, identified that people who drank caffeine within that 6 hour window, lost 1 hours sleep compared to those who didn’t. Alcohol can also have a negative impact. If you do enjoy a drink, try and make your last one 2 hours before you sleep. When it comes to food, keep this to a minimum before bed as it will cause your body to use energy and work hard digesting the food when it should be focusing on repairing and cleansing ahead of the next day.

Top Tips:

• Avoid caffeine 6 hours before bed. Decaf drinks or water are a great substitute.  
• Try to have your last meal at least 2- 3 hours before you go to sleep, and avoid highly processed/high sugar-based food too.

5. Environment is key:
Creating a space that will help you sleep is essential to get good quality sleep. Making the room as dark as possible can help with this. Even switching off small lights such as LEDs on alarm clocks, have been shown to help how well we sleep. A cool room is ideal also and be sure you keep the bedroom for its sole purpose only. No devices or gadgets allowed!

Top Tips:

• Blackout blinds or curtains are excellent to help with creating a dark environment.
• Cover over, switch off or remove devices or any items that give out light.
• Keep the room nice and cool. It is recommended around 18 – 20 degrees (to be precise!)

6. Prepare yourself:
Doing some intentional breathing before going to bed can help our body go into ‘rest’ mode. The ‘box breathing’ technique is a good place to start. Writing down any thoughts from the day can also help calm the mind. Keeping a pen and paper next to your bed can be helpful if something pops into your mind during the night too. Not only does this prevent the thought from being forgotten, it helps it leave your mind to allow you to sleep.

Top Tips:

• Focused breathing before bed can help our body get some rest. Click here to learn more.
• Keep a notepad and pen by your bed to write down any thoughts that may come to you during the night.

As you can see this is a huge topic and I could go on further, but these are my top 6 things to focus on to help get that well-needed rest. I know for many who struggle with sleep, it can become a dreaded time and cause extreme exhaustion if it persists. If you are struggling and haven’t given these steps a go before, it is a good place to start. If it persists, please seek guidance from your health care provider or get in touch and I can help guide you appropriately.

For those who work shifts or are caring for others, I know some of this is easier said than done. My recommendation is to do as many good things as you can within the realm of your circumstances.  The smallest changes can make a big difference to the quality of sleep you do get.

If you would like to learn more about sleep, check out ‘Sleep Smarter’ book by Shawn Stevenson which is a great resource and provided a key source for this blog.

Here’s to getting some well-deserved rest.

With love,
Sarah