Healthy sleep means more than simply ‘enough sleep’ – sleep is a critical pillar of health, just like nutrition and physical activity. Modern lives and busy schedules can interfere with the body’s natural sleep cycle: often we can find ourselves staying up late to finish an important task, watching tv in bed to unwind, or scrolling on our phones late into the night, wondering why we feel tired and unrested the next day.
If this sounds familiar, make sleep health a priority this #WorldSleepDay. We have been working in collaboration with Sleepio – an adult self help tool from Big Health UK to provide you with practical tips to help you create healthy sleep habits you can stick to:
- Keep regular hours. Going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time, all the time, will programme your body to sleep better.
- Create a restful sleeping environment. Your bedroom should be kept for rest and sleep and it should be neither too hot, nor too cold; and as quiet and dark as possible.
- Make sure your bed is comfortable. It’s difficult to get deep, restful sleep on one that’s too soft, too hard, too small or too old.
- Take more exercise. Regular, moderate exercise such as swimming or walking can help relieve the day’s stresses and strains. But not too close to bedtime or it may keep you awake!
- Cut down on stimulants such as caffeine in tea or coffee – especially in the evening. They interfere with falling asleep and prevent deep sleep. Have a hot milky drink or herbal tea instead.
- Don’t over-indulge. Too much food or alcohol, especially late at night, just before bedtime, can play havoc with sleep patterns. Alcohol may help you fall asleep initially but will interrupt your sleep later in the night.
- Don’t smoke. Yes, it’s bad for sleep, too: smokers take longer to fall asleep, wake more often and often experience more sleep disruption.
- Try to relax before going to bed. Switch off screens an hour before bedtime and instead have a warm bath, listen to some quiet music, do some yoga – all help to relax both the mind and body.
- If you can’t sleep, don’t lie there worrying about it. Get up and do something you find relaxing until you feel sleepy again – then go back to bed.
- If sleep problems persist, you may benefit from a CBT programme for insomnia (the NICE-recommended first line treatment), like Sleepio. Find out more at sleepio.com/nhs