As discussed in our previous articles:
Sleeping in the dark can help you loose weight?
Using your tablet / mobile phone before bed.
How sleep can improve your child's test scores and behaviour.
Sleep is crucial to brain development, behaviour and learning.
Switch off to switch off:
Increased exposure to blue lights from mobile devices, tablets and screens before bed effect melatonin production which in turn affects our quality of sleep, switching off all electronics in the evenings is a hard thing to do but worthwhile as it will help you have a more restful night’s sleep.
Cool down to wind down:
Sleeping in a cooler room not only helps you sleep better, it also makes getting into the covers a more welcoming experience. The recommended temperature for your bedroom is set at 60 -67 degrees.
Read:
Reading something you enjoy for a few minutes before bed will put you in a relaxed mood and will help you drift off as well as distracting your mind from work. NEVER read anything work related in bed, this will make it harder to fall asleep as well as making your brain associate your bedroom with non-relaxing thoughts. Which leads onto the next point…
Create a relaxing space:
Only associate your bedroom with relaxing, if you can do work in another room of your home. As the saying goes a tidy room, a tidy mind, this is very true and avoiding piles of dirty clothes and other stressful build ups in the bedroom also stop stress building up around bedtime. Avoid TV’s in the bedroom and electronics if you can. Set your alarm for the next day before you get into bed, setting it while you’re in bed will remind you about the next day and bring with it stressful thoughts.
Note Pad and Pen:
Keep a notepad and pen by the side of your bed, if you have any thoughts in bed jot them down on there instead of using your mobile. If you have any stressful thoughts also jot them down, this really works as the more tired a person is the more anxiety they have, meaning that your thoughts at the end of the day seem a lot more daunting than in the morning. Jotting them down makes them seem more achievable and structured, allowing you to put them aside and have some you time.
And Finally…
Experts recommend leaving 30 minutes every night to wind down; we recommend; dimmed lighting, relaxing music, no electronics and a good book. To figure out when your bedtime should be work backwards, if you need to wake up at 7:30am go to bed at 11:30pm leaving you with just over the recommended 7hrs and 45 minutes sleep.
If you would like to know more about how to get a better night’s sleep click here.
