7 Ways to Improve Your Sleep Tonight
By Ann-Marie Covert, MSW, RSW
Let’s face it, many of us just aren’t getting the sleep we require on a regular basis. We know this is a big problem because sleep is when we restore ourselves, fill up our tanks, and rebuild our immune systems. Sleep is also when we process the events of our day, including the emotional baggage that comes with life. Lack of sleep leaves us not only tired but stressed, easily triggered, and susceptible to illness.
I probably don’t need to tell you how important sleep is because if you aren’t sleeping well, you already know the impact it is having on your life. So let’s discuss some practical ways to promote your ability to have restorative sleep.
1. Reduce the caffeine
This is coming from someone who loves coffee, please just hear me out.
Caffeine is a substance that is from the class of drugs called “stimulants”, meaning it stimulates our brain and our central nervous system and makes us more alert. Caffeine crosses the blood-brain barrier almost instantly, giving us a quick and efficient wake-up call.
This extra pep is great when we need to kick-start or have extra focus, but the impact on sleep is another story.
The half-life of caffeine (the time it takes for it to break down in our body) is 5-6 hours, and depending on factors such as metabolism and weight, it can impact body chemistry 12 hours later. Due to the extended half-life, it is recommended that we stop consuming caffeine after 12 noon to ensure a good night’s sleep.
“But I can drink an espresso and go straight to bed; caffeine doesn’t affect me.”
I hear this all the time and this appears to be true for many people. However, if this is you, I want to inform you that caffeine is still impacting your night hours. This is because any amount of caffeine inhibits or prevents the brain from entering the restorative stage of sleep.
Although you feel like you slept well because you slept as hard as a rock, you probably still wake up tired because your body and brain weren’t able to enter the stage of sleep that helps us feel refreshed.
You are tired, so you need caffeine, and this caffeine prevents you from entering deep sleep… so you wake up tired, consume more caffeine, and the cycle continues.
If you aren’t ready to quit your Java, perhaps consider a harm reduction approach – limit your intake. Less is more, so have two cups instead of four, or have a medium instead of a large, or have half caffeinated half decaf, or have your last cup before noon. And please also be very wary of energy drinks, those are so hard on our bodies and brain when used regularly.
If you are still reading, thanks for not getting mad about your coffee!
2. Do five minutes of exercise
In today’s society, most of us are very fast-paced and yet also very sedentary.
I am a perfect example of this; at my job, I am inundated with meetings, e-mails, phone calls, texts, impromptu sessions with staff, and navigating crises on a regular basis. I don’t stop from the time I start until the time I leave. However, during this fast-paced day, I am, well… sitting.
While it is mental gymnastics, I am just sitting at my desk, staring at my screen. This “go, go, go” without actually going anywhere lifestyle triggers the secretion of adrenaline (the active hormone) and cortisol (the stress hormone) in our bodies, and the constant sitting or standing still is doing nothing to release it.
The result: our bodies are receiving chemical messages to be anxious and alert, even though we feel exhausted. This is why many people wake up at 3 am wide awake; they are experiencing a burst of cortisol (the hormone responsible for alertness) too early because of excess cortisol in their body.
The solution: work out for 5 minutes at least an hour before bed. That’s it. I know this may seem counter-intuitive to work out when you already have too much adrenaline and cortisol built in your body, but you will use more than you create. This is a way to expend that built-up energy.
Just five minutes of something that gets your heart beating faster, something aerobic, will alleviate this problem and expend the extra stress hormones. Jumping hacks, running on the spot, dancing around your bedroom – doesn’t matter as long as you work up a sweat. Do whatever your body can safely do.
3. Limit the screen time
Our phones, TVs, and tablets emit light that stimulates our brains. While our eyes perceive a single-constant image, our brains perceive the rapidly repeating emissions of unnatural light, and our brains get wired! Seeing so much light into the evening is also affecting our circadian rhythm (our innate understanding of when it is daytime and when it is nighttime).
These devices are wonderful (and I realize you are likely using one to read this article!), and let’s help them keep being wonderful to us by reducing how much we engage with them at night.
Try to cut off your screen time at least one hour before you go to bed; this will help you drift off to la-la land.
4. Ensure Your Bedroom Invites Sleep
With the great migration from the workplace and many of us now working or doing school work from home, the bedroom has become a pseudo-office space. However, when we do activities like work from our bedroom, our brain starts to associate that space with being busy or stressed. This can make it hard for our brain to un-wind and rest when it looks around and is reminded of stress.
What we want to do instead is to associate our bedroom with rest, sleep, and self-care. We need to keep our bedroom for bedroom stuff, and there are some practical ways to do this.
First, try to keep work out of the bedroom if at all possible and get creative if you need to. Convert a hallway closet to a desk area, use a spare bedroom, or carve out a nook in your living room.
Second, try to keep the space clean and organized if you can because chaos will also stimulate your brain. If you struggle with staying organized, buy a couple baskets or bins to throw things into so it at least looks less cumbersome and chaotic at night. Make your bed in the morning so it is ready and inviting at night (and as an aside, research indicates that making our bed every morning improves our motivation and mental health).
Third, consider how you decorate – is it too bright and stimulating with the colours and decorations, or is it subdued and restful? Perhaps consider painting with cooler colours (which our bodies associate with sleep), use comfortable blankets and pillows that are soft and inviting, put up blackout curtains to prevent rogue outdoor light from creeping in, and minimize the number of electronics near your bed that give off buzzing noises or light.
Make your bedroom a place that is comfy, cozy, and welcomes you to drift off into sleep.
5. Drink more water
Almost any health article is going to tell you to drink more water. We all know we need to drink more, and yet most people are dehydrated.
Drinking water will help alleviate headaches, will make your body less acidic, will help you control hunger, will improve your complexion, and will also help with sleep!
Dehydrated people don’t sleep well, so raise a glass to a good night’s sleep! In fact, why don’t we all drink a glass of water after reading this article because action proceeds motivation.
6. Build in Mental Processing Time
Life can be stressful, and all those stressors and worries can keep us up at night. Have you ever had an exhausting day, laid your head on the pillow, sure you will be out cold in seconds, just to have your mind start racing with worries?
Your mind needs to process things that happen. Our brain needs to reflect and digest our thoughts, feelings, and the events of the day. Our brain will take whatever time it can to process, and if we don’t give it time during the day, our brain will take advantage of the quiet moments it gets when our head hits the pillow. Due to busyness, we leave all that mental processing time for right before bed when it is the most inconvenient.
A way to mitigate this is to build in regular processing time during our week.
Make a date with a friend or family member and have a good heart-to-heart. Do it via face-time if you can't meet in person. Process your worries with each other, and then when you lay your head on the pillow, your brain has already had a chance to deal with what it needed to, and you can drift off in peaceful sleep.
Journaling is another good way to process and allow your brain space to do what it needs. The nice thing about journaling is it adds a tactile element (pen to paper), and this also helps our mind and body process what we experience.
Another one I personally like is voice recording and deleting. I will verbally discharge random thoughts and feelings and things weighing on my heart into my phone so I can say it out loud and then just press delete. Maybe just make sure you don’t accidentally send it to anyone!
If prayer is something that is important to you, this can also be a phenomenal way to process thoughts and feelings. Tell God about your day and what you’re struggling with. Discuss your highs and lows (God is a good listener), and then allow yourself to rest into sleep.
7. Keep a pad of paper and pen beside your bed
Again, because we are so busy during the day, sometimes our to-do lists suddenly make an appearance when we are lying still in our beds. It’s really difficult to fall asleep when you are thinking about all of your appointments and errands, so do your brain a favour, write it down.
And the recommendation is for pen and paper and not your phone because we want to keep electronics away from our bed at night.
Keep a notebook or sticky notes and a pen on your bedside table. Quickly jot down the to-do’s swirling in your mind, and now your brain won’t have to worry about whether or not you will forget what you were thinking about.
In addition to to-do’s, sometimes I have my greatest epiphanies at night. So, write it down! (You will thank me in the morning).
Did you know the inventor of the sewing machine had a dream about it before they invented it? Keep that pad of paper handy!
Give these a try!
There you have it, seven simple and practical strategies to improve your sleep. If you try even one of these strategies, it is likely that your sleep will improve. If you are really motivated, try all of them! Why not?
Wishing you sleep dreams and peaceful sleep, sweet dreams.
