“Me: Please let me sleep! Brain: Nope, we have to stay up together and go over every bad life decision we have made so far.” ~ Anonymous
https://casper.com/blog/sleep-quotes/
Did you know there is one magical cure for all that ails us?! It so simple you will laugh: it’s a good night’s sleep! There has been more research completed in the last five to ten years on the value of sleep that I could go on FOREVA on the topic. But I’m going to save us all some time and energy and break it down into the top five things based on a lot of reading and being my own favorite guinea pig. And don’t forget, I’m not a doctor, do not hold any medical degree, and I am just a girl on the internet trying to figure it all out. I’m sure you’ve heard all or most of these before but I’m going to put my own spin on it and hopefully you’ll get a few new nuggets.
1. Shift your mindset about going to bed.
Do you dread bedtime? Does the thought of getting into bed and trying to fall asleep just immediately bring you anxiety and a tightness in your shoulders and neck? Then the place to start is to shift how you think about bedtime and sleep. If you’ve ever experienced insomnia or just a long restless night of tossing and turning you know it is quite literally the worst thing ever. Your brain wants to keep thinking, worrying, problem-solving and it will not shut off.
Here’s the “Aha” moment: you are creating this environment in your own mind based on how you think about sleep in general. For example, like an hour or two before bedtime do you ever find yourself saying things like, “God, I know I’m not going to sleep tonight”, or, “I hate going to bed!” Guess what, you just told your brain how to react when you actually get in bed to sleep. Now your brain is all like, “Well, based on everything I’ve been saying for the last two hours I am definitely NOT going to sleep right now; I have so much to figure out for tomorrow! I need to solve the hunger crisis, what about climate change, and how do we bring about world peace?!” And then guess what: INSOMNIA!
Soooo…instead of all that crazy talk in your head, let’s control that conversation by shifting how you think about sleep and bedtime. Affirmations can do wonders for helping us control how we think about almost anything. In her book Heal Your Body, the wonderful Louise Hay has an affirmation for insomnia that works wonders for shifting your mindset. Her explanation for why we have insomnia feels pretty spot on too. She identifies it as, “Fear. Not trusting the process of life. Guilt.” Here is her insomnia affirmation. It’s so simple and beautiful you won’t believe it but it really works when applied: “I lovingly release the day and slip into peaceful sleep, knowing tomorrow will take care of itself.”
Start saying this affirmation a few hours before bed. Start thinking about how wonderful it feels to just drift off into a deep sleep and how great you feel when you wake up from a good night’s sleep. When your brain starts trying to tell you how much you don’t want to go to bed, stop the cycle and repeat the affirmation. Say things to yourself like, “I love sleeping. I fall asleep quickly and easily. I am a great sleeper!” The power of our own minds is something to behold. And don’t forget, you are the only one in your head so be mindful of that and make sure YOU decide what you’re going to think about.
2. Have an amazing nighttime routine that makes you look forward to snuggling down into bed.
Ok, I’m sure you’ve all heard about the importance of a nighttime routine but up until a few years ago, I will admit I had not. And quite honestly I thought maybe it was just some hippy dippy BS. But people, it works! The idea is to create this stack of nighttime habits that let your body and mind start preparing for sleep. If you do it right, this routine is something that you will be looking forward to every night.
My personal nighttime routine consists of a warm bath or shower to wind down and start relaxing. I get into my coziest clothes, ensuring what I put on my body feels soft and enveloping. Then I do my nighttime beauty routine, slowly massaging my products into my skin and just enjoying every moment. I floss, brush my teeth, and do my mouth rinse. Oh, and during all of the above I have very low lighting in the bedroom and bathroom. From the time you begin your nighttime routine, you want to keep all the lighting around you as soft as possible as your body is shifting your circadian rhythm to prepare you for sleep. This is also part of why reducing screen time on your electronic devices, including watching TV, is so critical to really get good sleep. Finally, I do a deep five-minute stretching routine while I listen to a guided meditation though the Calm app with my AirPods Pros in to block out all other sounds.
Next, I turn on my gentle wake alarm that I use through the app Sleep Cycle. The gentle wake alarm uses soothing sounds to wake you during a light sleep. You can choose the wake window you’d like. I use a 15-minute wake window which means if I set my alarm for 6:00am it will wake me between 5:45am-6:00am. At any point during that 15 minutes that the microphone hears noises that alert it I may be sleeping lightly, then it will wake me with a soft alarm sound of my choosing. Once my alarm is set, I curl up in my super cozy bed with a good personal growth book or something else that is not too stimulating mentally. Trust me on this, leave the murder mysteries for another time as you don’t want to read anything that is going to wake you up too much. I read for 15-30 minutes, depending on how quickly I feel sleepy. As soon as that drowsiness hits, I put down my book, turn out any remaining lights, put my sleep mask on, and melt into my bed ready for a yummy night of great sleep.
3. Invest in a great bed, pillows, and bedding.
This is the single most important investment in your health you can ever make. Enough said. Done. You don’t have to go crazy expensive but get a quality mattress if you can and at the very least get a quality mattress topper. Get a pillow that fits your sleep style. There are special pillow types for side sleepers, back sleepers, stomach sleepers, you name it. I’ve got my eye right now on one from The Cushion Lab. This is important so you are getting the right support for your neck, hips, and back depending on your sleep style. Trust me, it will be worth it. Speaking as a woman in her early 40s I wish to God someone had told me these things sooner. Or really someone probably did tell me this in my youth but I was like, “Hey, I’m 25, I can lay on the hard ground outside and fall into a deep twelve hour sleep in five seconds flat, so what are you talking about?” So I guess I really just wish I would have listened. In addition, you need bedding that is soft on your skin and keeps you cool. This means you most likely want a lighter blanket in the warmer months and a heavier blanket in the winter months. You get the idea. It’s worth every freaking penny.
4. Keep the room cool and dark.
My boyfriend loves to make fun of me because I wear a sleep mask over my eyes to sleep. He says I’m going into my cocoon. I need total darkness when I sleep. Not everyone needs the pitch black of wearing a sleep mask but we do all need to have darkness. This means no light from your phone, an alarm clock, a nightlight, or the streetlight outside your window.
You also need it to be cool in your bedroom. One of the most common things that will wake you up is getting too warm. The Sleep Foundation research indicates that 65 degrees Fahrenheit is the best temperature to sleep well at night. Our body temperature drops a few degrees at night so keeping it cool can help with temperature regulation and keeping your body in “sleep mode” to so speak. When the room gets too warm while you sleep you get restless and wake up feeling very tired but unable to sleep. Basically, a total nightmare, no pun intended.
5. Reduce stimulation of the brain.
Ok, I know this one is the hardest for all of us currently addicted to our phones, aka 99% of the worlds population today. I am as bad as anyone and have been consciously working to reduce my screen time. Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. You sit down on the couch with your boo and suddenly think of something you want to look up online. You grab your phone and on your way to look up that “one thing” you’re like, you know what, I haven’t looked at my IG for a bit. Let me just check in on that and see what my girls are up to. And an hour or more later you look up, realize what time it is now, you still haven’t looked at that thing you grabbed your phone to look at, your night is shot and guess what it’s time to go to bed now. And your brain is so overstimulated by the bright blue light of your screen, the interesting things you read and saw, and your anxiety over wasting all that time that now sleep is the last thing that is going to come easily when your head hits that pillow.
Listen, I know it’s freaking hard to put the phone down. We are ADDICTED with a capital A. But you can do this and it will change your life. It all goes back to creating a nighttime routine and habits that eventually become second nature. At least an hour before bed, start your nighttime routine which will include moving your phone away from you. It needs to be out of arms reach and take quite a bit of effort to get to. Once it goes to that spot, the only other time you will pick up that phone before bed is to listen to your guided meditation if needed or to set your alarm.
Another way to overstimulate your brain before bed is watching TV. Some people think they need to watch TV to go to sleep and if that is you, my best recommendation would be do NOT watch the news no matter what you do. My best guess is you are using the TV for background noise. A better option would be to get a diffuser in the room or turn on some white noise from a machine or app. I have a diffuser in my bedroom and it has the added bonus of aromatherapy. Huzza! Here’s one you can try from Target but honestly really it’s hard to go wrong with any basic diffuser.
“The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.” ~ E. Arthur Cossman
https://casper.com/blog/sleep-quotes/
Quick Recap
- Shift your mindset about sleep
- Create a nighttime routine that makes you look forward to bedtime
- Invest in a great bed, pillow, and bedding
- Keep the room cool and dark
- Reduce stimulation
Helpful Tools
If you’ve done all of the above and you’re still really having trouble falling asleep, I have another great trick up my sleeve. Sleep stories!! OMG it’s one of the best “new” old inventions ever for helping you go to sleep. If you ever had your parents read stories to you at bedtime when you were a kid, then you know what this is like, just minus the snuggling time with your mum or dad. I put in my AirPods Pro in Active Noise Cancellation and pick a sleep story in the Calm app. They have some great free sleep stories on that app but you can also get them on YouTube.
Track your sleep debt with an app. I use Rise Sleep which tracks your sleep then uses that to provide the peak energy times you will have throughout the following day. It also learns when your melatonin window will be which determines the best time for you to fall asleep each night. Using the data it will determine how many hours of sleep you will need to get to reduce your sleep debt and then provide recommendations on when you go to sleep and when you get up so you can reduce that debt. It’s been life-changing for me.
Sweet dreams!
funnyfacebookgirl 