Getting Better Sleep

GETTING A BETTER NIGHTS SLEEP

Choosing to make quality sleep a priority is cheap and easy and arguably has a bigger bang for your buck health benefit than anything else you can do. It doesn’t require a gym membership that you probably won’t use,  you won’t need to go and buy overly tight stretchy clothes from Lulu Lemon, there’s no pretending to understand the complex relationships between carbs, proteins and fats and no embarrassing yourself in a room full of ultra-fit, super bendy people.

TURN YOUR BEDROOM INTO A TEMPLE OF SLEEP

COOL

The recommended temperature is between 16C and 19C but find a temperature that is comfortable for you. Just as the temperature outside drops as the day turns into night, turn down the heating in your house at night to replicate the conditions for sleep our bodies need.

DARK

Electrical lighting has probably had a bigger impact on our sleep than anything else in our modern world. If you’re working at night and sleeping during daytime hours, ensure that your bedroom is as dark as you can make it, and if you can’t afford blackout curtains, experiment with using an eye mask.

QUIET

If you live in a city or town, then your sleep will be impacted by noise. Your senses don’t switch off when we sleep and loud noises such as sirens, cars and the general goings on of late night life can impact the quality of your sleep.

Sleep with the windows closed unless you live in the country where you can be woken by the natural sounds of the morning. If you live in a particularly noisy area, then invest in a white noise machine or a pair of good earplugs.

PRE-SLEEP

What you choose to do in the 90 minutes before you go to bed has a huge impact on your sleep.

Turn off your screens, disconnect from work and put emails to bed.  Enjoy a (caffeine free) cup of tea, read a book, reflect on the day, meditate, take a hot shower or bath, do all those boring tasks that require little mental capacity you’ve been putting off all day like the laundry or washing up.

POST-SLEEP

Just as what you do before you go to bed will affect your sleep, what you do in the 90 minutes directly after you wake will impact your day and are some of the most important of your day. 

Many of the most successful people in the world have some form of a morning routine, varying from mediation and breath work to sweating it out at the gym or an energising yoga routine. An example of a morning routine would be: Wake up, Coffee, 10-minute stretch, 10-minute workout, catch up with the morning news.

Whatever you choose to include in your morning routine, a good way to stick to it is to write it down as a list and put it next to your bed, or somewhere you’ll see it first thing in the morning.

∼

Sinead Lowe, our Customer Development Manager, has some great advice about getting a good nights sleep

∼