Part Two: 5 Steps to Great Sleep

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I took the last two weeks off from the blog to really focus on school and my family (and work), but I’m back with Part 2 of a very important series on sleep. If you haven’t read Part 1, I highly recommend taking a peek at that before reading this one. It will give you context for the importance of what we are about to talk about.

So we know from last time that sleep is important. However, getting it is harder than it seems. Especially now. Life is stressful. And even in the midst of a pandemic that perhaps opened up our calendars at first, we now are juggling new routines, doing everything remotely, and not getting to see those we love. All of this can impact sleep. I know this and I’ve been there. And am often still there. Sleep does not always come easy, but with a little prep work, we can support our bodies in order to get the best rest possible. Here are my favorite top 5 ways to get a good nights sleep.

Step 1: Make a Sleep Routine.

Ok, you KNOW this. A solid sleep routine is how you ensure your children get to bed on time. But did you know it is AS important for grown-ups? Just as we can’t expect our kids to go from 60mph to zero, we can’t expect this from ourselves either.

What entails a good sleep routine you ask? It must consist of things that calm you down and bring you into a state of peace. This is different for everyone. For me, it CANNOT include TV. Well, except maybe a good Hallmark movie. But in general, if I watch anything engaging, funny, upsetting, political, or violent, I’m in for a horrible night of sleep. Sometimes I make that choice, but I always know what the consequence will be. Instead of TV, reading, writing, praying, or meditating all provide the space to let your brain and body begin to relax. A hot steamy shower (not that kind of steamy shower—although that might help too!!) or a hot bubble bath with a good magazine or book can also provide space to relax. Some people love to diffuse relaxing essential oils in the room or will spray their pillow with a calming linen spray (minus the chemicals—read your labels).

Step 2: Get Cold.

Our bodies sleep better when they are cold, research has shown this repeatedly. You may know it anecdotally. Our bodies can tolerate cold better and if we are sleeping when it’s hot, our body is too busy working to cool itself off to get to work on doing its nightly jobs. If you are like me and HATE the cold, you can warm up your bed ahead of time with a heating pad or an Ooler (if you are really fancy). That way you can climb into a warm bed that will cool as you fall into a deep sleep.

Step 3: Make it Dark.

Despite the need for night lights to keep us from being scared as children, our bodies really do prefer it to be super dark. Research shows that our skin actually has light receptors in it and when stimulated, from something even as subtle as your clock, it will suppress the melatonin needed for sleep. Covering your eyes is helpful, but if you’ve got a bright hall light on or even a bright light on your smoke detector, that is enough to mess up your sleep. Crazy, I know. But I can personally attest to this! Aim to get your room as dark as possible.

Step 4: It’s All About Timing.

Without doing a full blown sleep study it’s hard to know exactly how long your sleep cycles are, but for most adults they are going to be between 45-90 minutes, more likely towards the latter end. This is important because you want to try and wake up as you are coming out of a sleep cycle, not in the middle of one. For example, if your sleep cycles are 90 minutes long and you go to bed at 10pm, your ideal wake time is going to be either 5:30am or 7am, because that will catch you in between cycles. You might be surprised to find that you feel as rested when you wake at 5:30am as you do at 7am. But if your alarm goes off at 6:30am, you feel death is about to over take you. Play around with this to find your ideal wake times, then use this strategy to find your bed time each night. If you know you have an important meeting at 8am and you want to wake up at 6am to prepare for it, count backwards in increments of 90 minutes to determine when you should go to bed.

A second thing to consider regarding the timing of going to bed is knowing that for most of us, cortisol production is going to surge if we don’t get to bed on time. Ever get SUPER productive at 11pm? That’s a cortisol surge and it will mess with your sleep. Helpful in college, not as an exhausted parent. If you typically go to bed early, like say before 9pm, your surge may happen earlier than others, maybe closer to 10pm. No matter what time it happens, it will often result in a night of insomnia. A bonus of falling asleep before 10pm (meaning you likely are in bed a drowsy by 9:45pm) is that we get the biggest bang for our sleeping bucks, meaning that you will get the deepest levels of restorative sleep (ahem, when growth hormone is produced—aka the youth hormone). This may motivate you to get to bed earlier, I know it does for me!

Step 5: No food at night. Period.

Yeah, I mean it. Hopefully most of us have moved passed our late nights of binge eating since leaving college, but if this is still you, it’s time to knock it off. Our bodies need at least 2-3 hours of digestive time between the last meal of the night and bedtime. I find it easiest to just set a time and be religious about sticking to it. For me, 7pm is my cut off. You’ll rarely see me eating past this time, and if I am, it’s usually on a holiday or special celebration. Giving your body this time between food and bed ensures that food has moved through the digestive tract and has done all it needs to for nutrient absorption and excretion. If you eat right before bed (pregnancy being a big exception to this—all rules fly out the window when you are growing a human), your body is going to be working so hard to digest food that it won’t get to the important tasks it is supposed to (see Part 1). I double dog dare you try it. You’ll be amazed how great you feel in the morning too!

A few other hacks.

1. Magnesium: I love this topically before bed in the form of a spray or lotion. Paired with lavender it makes a great way to get ready for sleep.

2. Herbs/tea: there are so many great herbs to help with sleep including chamomile, skullcap, catnip and more. Combine these into a tea or take as a tincture to help ease you in to sleep. I make my own but since I’m not an herbalist, I cannot sell them. I recommend Earthly products for this!

3. Weighted blankets have gained quite a bit of popularity in the past few years. They originally were designed to support children with sensory dysfunction. The extra weight provides deep input to their joints and other sensory system components and results in relaxation. The same idea works for grown ups too. Our sensory systems are often on overdrive and heavy weight on us as we sleep or even just snuggle watching TV can help us reorient ourselves. There are dozens of great brands. I recommend just double checking you’ll like the fabric they use.

Well, there you go! I hope with the help from Part 1 and Part 2 you’ll find yourself getting more restful sleep soon!

Questions? Comments? Please let me know! And if you found this helpful, I would so love if you could share this with your friends and family!

Here’s to your health!

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