Sleep Hygiene
What is sleep hygiene?
Sleep hygiene refers to the set behaviours and the environments associated with our sleep. Research has found that focusing on sleep promoting behaviours and environments is one of the best ways to support easeful and good quality sleep. While these changes can be tricky they are part of most sleep support plans because they simply work.
create the best sleep Environment
Keep your room cool
A room that is too cold, or too warm, can lead to multiple awakenings throughout the night and therefore to disrupted and poor quality sleep. Our body naturally drops its internal temperature to help it prepare for sleep onset. After we fall asleep, our body temperature continues to drop gradually over night, until a few hours before we awaken. When our bedroom is too warm, we have a hard time with this temperature drop.
Aim for your room to be somewhere between 65-67 degrees Fahrenheit (or 18-19 degrees Celsius).
Open windows if you have a hard to control radiator.
Use multiple blankets to control temperature.
Keep your bedroom dark
Darkness helps us initiate sleep and stay asleep. Melatonin, a hormone which regulates our circadian rhythm (our internal body clock) that needs darkness (not dimness!) to function properly and support our sleep.
Even small amounts of light from the sun or a street lamp can be detected from our closed eye-lids and signal to our brain that it’s time to wake up.
Use window coverings or black out blinds to limit light from the outdoors coming in. Be mindful of any electronics, cables, cords, that might be emitting light and try to cover them up (or leave them out of your room if possible).
Keep your room quiet
Frequent noise, or disrupting noise can contribute to sleep. Silicone ear plugs (for side sleepers!) white noise machines, or fans can all help drown out any noises from the city or neighbours.
Behaviours around your bed
Bed is only for sleep & sex
In order to support good quality sleep we want to associate our bed with sleep. Which means all other activities (phone, reading, long conversations, tablets, music etc.) should not be occurring in our bed.
A hilarious (and useful) way to remember this, is to ask yourself “am I sleeping or having sex?” when you are in your bed, if you aren’t doing either of those things - go somewhere else!
Trouble sleeping? Get out of bed!
If you are having a hard time sleeping or falling back asleep, get up and move locations. Try and sit and do something screen less for a set period of time (say 20 minutes) until you feel sleepy again. This helps to continue to associate your bed with sleepiness, and not with stress.
Try and limit screens for 30 minutes before bed
Choose a quiet screen-less activity (reading, writing, drawing, stretching etc.) to help you wind down without screens before you go to bed.
Sleep habits
Bedtime, wake ups & naps
Keep sleep on a routine. Try and go to bed and wake up at the same time, even on weekends or holiday. Wake up at the same time every day even when you are sleepy.
Try and avoid napping too close to bedtime, or all together to avoid impacting your bodies “sleep hunger” while you try and build improved associations with your routine and bed.
Avoid alcohol, caffeine, nicotine and other stimulants
Alcohol can act as a stimulant at low doses, causing us to wake up many times throughout the night. Tobacco and nicotine can also be stimulants so be mindful of smoking or vaping before bed.
Caffeine can impact our sleep 6-8 hours before our bed time. Try cutting yourself off from caffeine around noon or switching to decaf. Even for those who aren’t impacted by caffeine impeding their ability to fall asleep, know that caffeine can prevent our body from falling into it’s deepest stages of sleep (REM cycles).
Other health habits
Move your body!
Exercise (of any kind) helps improve sleep. We recommend following the Health Canada guidelines of combining at least 150 minutes of moderate-vigorous cardiovascular activity and two strength bearing activities per week.
Spend time outdoors
Less exposure to outdoor light has been shown to be a risk factor for mood, circadian rhythm and sleep disorders. Try getting outside for sunlight exposure everyday (ideally in the morning!) to support your circadian rhythm naturally (and this can double as some extra low intensity exercise if you go for a walk)
Manage stress
Work to manage your stressors to reduce the likelihood of stress causing insomnia episodes. Depending on the source of your stress, this may require seeking support from work place mentors or bosses, family, friends or professionals.
Need more help?
If you are looking for more support with sleep, energy or overall healthy habits. Book with us to learn more about how our integrative health care team can support your care from a variety of different angles.