Getting enough sleep is hard. Here are six ways to make it a little easier.
1. Cut down or eliminate the caffeine. This may sound like crazy talk to those of us who worship at the local Starbucks. Kicking the habit can be awful in the short term, but in the long term it can help us build a better relationship with sleep and a more realistic idea of what we should be doing.
2. Get in some cardio. There is a pretty strong correlation between getting enough exercise and improved sleep.
3. Find a mindfulness practice. One of the big barriers to falling asleep is what I call Hamster Head—that little rodent won’t stop running through all the things on the to-do list or the litany of embarrassing things I’ve done since I was three or random song lyrics. Learning to meditate can help chill that little beast out.
4. Turn off the tech. I’ve been working on this one myself. Instead of binge-watching more cop shows in the evening, I’ve been doing some old-fashioned reading with an actual book. I’m falling asleep faster. (Note: this is anecdotal evidence and not scientifically valid, but real scientists have done studies that indicate that turning off the screens an hour or so before bed improve sleep latency, which is the time between going to bed and falling asleep.)
5. Schedule it. This one can be hard, especially for those of us who enjoy sleeping in when we can. However, bodies like routine, so if we practice going to bed at a regular time and getting up at a regular time, our bodies adapt and learn to sleep during those hours.
6. Get comfy. Some of us want all the pillows. Some want cool sheets. Some need total darkness. We can take the time to find our own best practices for sleeping and create that environment. When I was sick as a kid, my mom would come in and smooth out the sheets and untangle the blankets, which made the bed comfortable again; now we get to be our own moms.
As we say in our house, don’t bite the bedbugs; they hate that.
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