I’ll try and keep this one short and sweet, and but stress that your sleep should be anything but! There is no way your sleep should ever be short, but sometimes, we can be so up in our heads, or squeezing in one last task before bedtime, that just goes on a bit longer that you thought it would.
Sleep should never be something that you just fit into your day, it should be planned, and you should be protective of your sleep pattern.
The side effects of consistently NOT getting good sleep are headaches, possibly diabetes, heart conditions, high blood pressure, and just generally not being able to concentrate.
I will do another post about menopause insomnia which is unfortunately my most recent experience of not getting good sleep for several nights on the trot. It’s not fun.
So what can you do about it?
Creating a healthy bedtime routine sounds like a whole heap of effort doesn’t it, but I promise it’s not.
You can give these tips a go, one at a time, and build them into your day.
Be mindful of your caffeine intake during the day, no coffee after 3pm is my house rule.
If you are working from home, be super kind, and super strict with yourself when i comes to stopping your work for the day, and limit the amount of blue light you are exposed to in the evenings. Laptop and mobile phone use late at night are examples of this. I am really bad at this because it’s almost as if I can hear Pinterest calling my name late at night.
Try not to have any items charging in your bedroom. Having your bedroom look like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise could interfere with your sleep.
I love using a lavender pillow spray before I turn the lights off. Marvellous.
Be consistent with your times to go to sleep, and getting up when your alarm goes off.
Another thing that has really helped me is… wait for it… ordering my bed linens from a company that supplies hotels. Vision Linens! for the win. What a difference it made having hotel standard pillows and pillowcases, and the investment is not as big as you think!
One last thing that will really help is getting as much diverse movement into your day, 20 minutes a day of having a dance off, or getting out for really brisk walk will be so beneficial if you have been working from home and sitting at your laptop all day.
Get in touch if you have any specific questions, and remember that booking in for a massage can also help to settle your central nervous system and encourage some down time in the evening.
ZZZZZZZZZ…