Sleep is extremely important to your physical and mental health. This 5 step system to better sleep was developed as a way to seamlessly integrate a new routine into your already hectic schedule.
Sleep is extremely important to your physical and mental health. This 5 step system to better sleep was developed as a way to seamlessly integrate a new routine into your already hectic schedule.
Most of us aren’t getting enough sleep.
The problem is that trying to fit sleep into the chaos of our lives can seem next to impossible. At any given moment, we’re struggling to fit adequate sleep in with these problems.
- Babies that wake during the night.
- Toddlers that wake up at 6am.
- Husbands that want us to stay up late to hang out with them.
- Work that goes late.
- Laundry that has to be done.
- And the pull of late night reality TV and the new Richelle Mead book (or is that just me?)
Why I make sleep a priority.
The benefits of extra sleep are impressive but I focused on getting better sleep for only one reason. After we had our kids, I noticed that I was increasingly aggravated and impatient.
It affected every aspect of my life and we brushed it off as hormones settling from pregnancy. While I didn’t have postpartum depression (which you can diagnose with a trip to your doctor), I did struggle with staying calm and keeping things in perspective.
I started focusing on getting 8 hours of sleep a night (a feat much harder than most of us realize!) and the relief from those symptoms was almost immediate (it took about 3-4 days to see a total turn-around).
I’ve been a diehard believer in focusing on quality sleep since then.
That’s just one of many benefits of getting enough sleep, though. Others include:
- Improved memory
- Improved quality of life
- Mood improvement
- Muscle repair
- Weight loss
- Better skin
- Better health
- Better decision-making abilities
- More willpower
- Increased productivity
- Better immune system
- Increased pain tolerance
The 5 Step System to Better Sleep
Wake up at the same time every day.
The first few days of this are the hardest. Find the ideal time for you to wake up and stick with it.
In the beginning, after several failed attempts at this, I made plans to meet someone in the morning to help me adjust.
It’s so much easier to wake up when you “have to” rather than just pressing the snooze button a few times. Make an appointment to meet a friend for coffee, meet at the gym, or even book a doctor’s appointment first thing in the morning to force yourself to wake up.
After three days of forcing myself to wake up, it got easier to wake up for just the alarm clock and by the end of the week, this was easy.
Ditch the distractions.
Sitting in bed,watching TV, and scrolling facebook is hardly a good way to ease into sleep. Screen time at night has been shown in countless studies to affect your ability to fall asleep and your quality of sleep when you do finally fall asleep.
Instead, shut the TV off at least 30 minutes before bed and read a book. If you hate reading, try a magazine or writing in a journal.
Develop a night routine.
Just like babies thrive on routines, so do we. A sleep routine triggers our brain to start preparing for sleep and makes falling asleep easier.
My sleep routine is to head to bed 30 minutes before I need to fall asleep, wash my face, brush my teeth, remove my make up and put on a moisturizing face cream. Then I curl into bed with a good book for a few minutes. I read a chapter or two and then put the book aside.
Implement the night routine.
Set an alarm on your phone for when you need to head up to bed. This is the hardest step to get used to. Like any habit, it takes 28 consecutive days to form a habit. If you can get through 28 days of going to bed on time, then it will become second nature.
The easiest way to implement this is to focus on just the 28 days.
Don’t think of this as a life change, think of this as a challenge to complete for 28 days straight. By the end of the month, it will be easy, and you’ll be motivated by the benefits you’ll see from having enough sleep.
Stay consistent.
It’s imperative that your sleeping and waking times stay consistent from weekday to weekend. This creates a consistent sleep routine that your body can rely on.
While this was a little bit tougher for me in the beginning, I quickly realized that I could use the early hours of the weekend to my advantage. If the kids are still sleeping than I can binge watch bad reality TV and if they’re awake, we hit the grocery store,
Fun fact: There is NO ONE in your local grocery store at 8 am on a Saturday.
How much sleep should I be getting?
Between 7-9 hours for the average adult. You can read more information about determining your sleep recommendation here.
Identifying problems.
For about 90% of people, this system will work well and you’ll be getting enough sleep routinely in about a month.
But, for others, this won’t be possible or won’t solve their current sleep problems.
You can try a few extra steps to help your sleep routine:
- Eliminate alcohol and caffeine at least 6 hours before bed.
- Evaluate your mattress and pillows for comfort.
- Work to increase your exercise during the day.
Special situations.
If you have an infant that wakes frequently.
This is the hardest situation to get through. Your best bet is to normalize your schedule as much as possible. Likely for the first 3 months with a newborn, you’ll need to have a 10-11 hour sleep window at night since you’ll be up several times with the baby.
If that’s not possible, then this will just have to be something that you do the best that you can until the baby’s schedule stabilizes a little bit.
Even now, with an 18-month-old and a 3-year-old, I leave myself a 9-hour sleep window in order to get 8 hours of sleep, because I know that one of my kids will wake up at least once.
If you work shift work.
I tried for years to regulate my sleep schedule while doing shift work and it never happened. In fact, that schedule had a lot to do with why I eventually left that job.
The sleep foundation has some information on minimizing the damage of shift work on your sleep that you can find here. But much of it would be impractical or unsafe for many jobs that require shift work (like napping during your shift as a police officer).
We did have success with using melatonin to help regulate my husband’s schedule after he worked midnights for years but talk to your doctor first to see what they recommend before you take any supplements
If your mind races.
If you can’t get your mind to shut off and you worry about things when you should be sleeping, try keeping a notebook next to the bed. When your mind starts to race, jot down anything that’s bothering you.
As silly and trite as it sounds, it really does work. You’re able to move your problems and worries into a “safebox” for the night, knowing that you’ll be able to read them and pick them back up in the morning.
You know when you write them down that you won’t forget the problems. You’re just setting them aside until it’s time to deal with them again.
When there’s more going on.
If you still have trouble regulating your sleep or if you think there may be more going on, then book an appointment to talk to your doctor about it. There are several conditions that can affect your sleep such as sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, depression, and anxiety.
By speaking to a doctor, you can get a diagnosis and treatment to help manage the condition.
Make sleep a priority.
The most important thing you can do is to recognize that there are consequences to a long-term lack of sleep. By making adequate sleep a priority, you’re setting a foundation for a better life.
When you recognize that sleep is just as important as work and family time, it’s easier to make sure that you get enough.
Cindy @ Smart Family Money says
I feel best when I get 9 hours of sleep, but since I have kids who are up around 7:30am (7 days/week), that means I need to get myself to bed by 10:30pm. One trick that has worked for me in the past was setting an alarm upstairs in my bedroom for 10pm. I knew that if it beeped, it would probably wake up my sleeping kids, so I rushed up there by 10pm to shut it off every day. It was a great motivator for me to get off the couch!
Thanks for this post! It’s a great reminder.
The Busy Budgeter says
Brillant! Thanks for sharing đ
The Busy Budgeter says
If you want to be at the top of your game, you have to get enough sleep đ
The Busy Budgeter says
The notebook saves me every time!
Nicole M. Wilson says
Forgot about the sleeping bags mate? If you want a good sleep in travel then you must have one of the, First, though, I might raise you what your budget is, and wherever youâll be mistreatment it as a part of your sleep system.
Simply put, I might not obtain a bag from Wally-World (Wal-Mart) or one created by Coleman, or any bag with the retail storeâs name, like Cabellaâs or Bass professional outlets. They generally not of the very best quality and are usually significant. That aside, there are a unit lots of prestigious gear makers that build superior, efficient sleeping baggage. To wit, Kelty makes a line of luggage with each artificial insulation, in addition as down, and area unit within your means.
A few items of advice:
1. If you’ll be able to afford down, get it.
2. The r-rating of a bag is that the terribly coldest temperature you’ll be able to survive for twelve hours provided you’re carrying a base layer, socks, gloves and a hat, and youâre shielded from the weather and youâre on a matt or pad. Itâs not the âcomfortâ rating. I donât heed comfort ratings. Rule of thumb â add 10 roughly degrees, specified if a bag says it’ll visit 20* F, it ought to keep you snug at physical change.
3. Donât be part of sleeping baggage, even though it says you’ll be able to. The bag was designed for one person.
4. Quality sleeping baggage can virtually invariably have an âYKKâ zipper.
5. Mummy baggage area unit smaller, lighter, and conserve your heat higher than rectangular baggage.
6. A bag is a component of a sleep system. Conjointly enclosed area unit your mattress, a closed cell foam pad, alongside what you sleep in.
7. Synthetic baggage break down once a handful of years. So, if you got an artificial bag a while past, think about its rating to travel up. I actually have a bag I bought a number of years past rated at 20â° F that I might trust all the way down to maybe 40â° F currently.
Finally, if you canât afford the proper bag for the trip, either donât go or rent one.
How does one certify that you simply have elect the most effective bag for your inhabitation trip?
The very last thing you wish to happen once you are twenty miles into the woods is to search out your bag isn’t heat enough. You may be facing a really long and unrestful night which may ruin your spirits and sap your strength for ensuing day.
There are a unit many professionals and cons to most of the choices out there in sleeping baggage. A down feather is extremely heat. It light-weight to hold and may be simply compressed for travel and quickly regain type once jolted out. Itâs far and away a more robust alternative for backpackers WHO will carry the bag with them for extended journeys as a result of the lighter weight and smaller packing. However, down feather is additionally costlier and losses its insulating properties once wet – a thought if sleeping outdoors or motion in inclement weather.
Synthetic stuffed baggage area unit cheaper than down feather and retain their heat even in wet conditions. They dry quicker than down and area unit an honest alternative if motion by boat or sleeping outdoors on the bottom. However, artificial baggage area unit heavier and bigger which may be a draw back if you’re hiking long distances with the bag.
For the typical family camper artificial baggage area unit the smallest amount overpriced and least suffering from wet conditions. If motion by automobile to a camping ground the dimensions and weight of an artificial bag shouldn’t be a drag.
Overall, gear ought to be engineered to satisfy a desire. It is nice to possess one thing to try and do it all, however once you would like the proper tool for employment, it is best to possess that right tool. For me the most effective bag on the marketplace for what I do is that the lepton Endurance four hundred from Rab. This bag weights but one kg, packs all the way down to 2L, giving the superior performance you’d expect of down.
But what sets it apart type the competition is 2 things. The primary huge distinction is that like all Rab product, the luggage have a hydrophobic treatment that repels water. What this suggests is that if you spiel off your mat at nighttime into a puddle of water, once you roll out, there’s no wet, or loss of warmth retention ability from your bag (personal experiences). This conjointly makes the bag dry off a lot of quicker if it will get wet. On long journeys this is often an enormous quality.
The second profit is that the outer shell of the bag is formed of Pertex Endurance. This breathable windproof material is waterproof to. 5,000 metric linear unit of water pressure ( true waterproofing is taken into account by quality brands to start out at seven,000mm.) what this suggests that in something in need of a torrential palter this bag remains cozy, even exposed to the weather. If you get pleasure from inhabitation ultralight with a canvas shelter, or in a very bevy then this is often excellent. As a generic inhabitation bag they’re most likely over kill, although operate simply fine.
Deanna says
Great tips! I love the idea of a “safe box”. I call it a brain dump, just write everything on your mind and also a list of the next days activities in order of priority. I find it helps to calm any anxious thoughts. Essential oils are very calming as well. I use a mix of Cedarwood and Lavender every night and along with a cup of tea, find it really does the trick!