What if your New Year’s resolution was to get more sleep?
Our culture is quite focused on diet and exercise as a way to improve health at this time of year. Eat less food. Lose weight. Restrict. Push yourself harder. Burn more calories. Lose weight.
Really though, there’s no reason that our New Year’s resolutions can’t be healing. The fact is we need to nurture ourselves to stay healthy. And our culture isn’t all that focused on nurturing. Or sleep.
Which brings us to a bunch of questions. Are you sleep deprived? Do you have sleep problems? A sleep disorder? Sleep apnea? Do you need sleeping aides? Do you have trouble falling asleep? Staying asleep? It seems we live in a culture of chronic sleep deprivation. Oy vey! Did you ever stop to wonder why this is? I believe that the advent of the electric light over a century ago has lead to this. When it was dark at night it was a challenge to stay up late. Darkness makes us sleepy. Darkness is a trigger for the secretion of the sleep hormone melatonin. What is melatonin?
Melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland in the brain that helps to control sleep and wake cycles. Normally, melatonin levels rise in the evening, remain high for most of the night, and then drop in the early morning hours. However, artificial light can interfere with the secretion of melatonin, which can lead to aforementioned insomnia, sleep disorders, and sleep deprivation.
The trouble with the use of artificial light is that it allows us to access “daytime” in the middle of the night. Now, with the advent of screens such as television, computers, e-readers, and cellular telephones, we have ubiquitous little sources of powerful light constantly available around the clock.
Common sense tells us that artificial light is tremendously disruptive to our sleep cycles and confusing to our brains and bodies. With an increase in physiological distractions from a good night’s sleep, we have all the more reason to be disciplined about turning off devices (and lights) and turning in for the night. The simple tricks below, such as sleeping in a darkened room, can help you both fall asleep and stay asleep. Here are my own personal, tried and true tips for getting a good, long night of rest.
Five Ways to Get a Better Night’s Sleep
1. Create a nightly ritual
Engage in a quiet activity such as making a cup of tea, meditating or very gentle stretching in order to prepare your mind and body for bedtime.
2. Turn in early
Give yourself enough time to digest your evening meal, though not enough time to get involved in projects that are best saved for the following day.
3. Tune out early
Unplug from electronic screens and devices that trick your inner clock into thinking it is mid-day and disrupt the melatonin production needed to make us sleepy.
Over a decade ago, when my boys were little we used to have an evening or two each winter where we would forgo the use of artificial light. We would eat dinner by candlelight and read bedtime stories using the same. On those nights we fell asleep earlier and more easily. It’s a fun experiment and my children and I enjoyed it immensely; we felt very cozy on those dark mid-winter nights.
What do you do to get more sleep and improve your sleep quality? Leave a comment below and let us know what you do to catch more zzzz’s.
Remember, when it comes to your health, sleep is every bit as important as what you are eating and proper exercise! And if that isn’t enough to motivate you, check out my recent post called Can Sleep Loss Add to Weight Gain?
elizabeth says
Thanks for sharing such important — and not commonly discussed — elements of sleeping. My doctor told me about sleeping in utter darkness in order to give the body a chance to manufacture melatonin and I was astounded, but tried it (sleeping with sleep mask is the best I can do right now) and I’m a firm believer.
Lynette Kreidler says
A possible answer to what color lights: I got this from animal researchers on obesity in rats, rats require day & night but researchers need to observe the critters- therefore Red/orange lights are out in labs so the animals have “normal diurnal rhythms” without disruption of lights. I got red lights for night lights for my girls who had fear of the dark as well.
Hope this helps!
Cynthia says
i have started rubbing lavender essential oils into my children’s feet each evening at bedtime and it has made for a much calmer and relaxing evening :-))
For me personally, vigorous exercise early in the day & good nutrition allows my body to fall asleep fairly easily. On days I do not exercise in this manner I typically stay up later than I should!
Kerry says
I also have found help using the supplement Natural Calm magnesium supplement. Recommended to me by a nutritionist. Helps with calcium uptake as well, and digestion (and I’m pregnant, so alleviating constipation is a constant goal) (sorry if that’s too much information!) – and I also have noticed that I sleep deeper / less dreams (also fun to battle during pregnancy) – and never feel groggy in the morning. Something to investigate for yourself!
Lisa says
I have no problems falling asleep. My problem is staying asleep through the whole night! Any recommendations for that?
Janice says
Really enjoy and have benefited from this website. Appreciate everyone’s input.
I have found that sleeping through the night did not always come easily, but a wonderful product called Magnesium CALM changed all of that (available on Amazon). Start slowly and build up your intake -Carolyn Dean, a Naturopath and M.D. offers much advice on magnesium. And, recently, in the middle of a move and with the added stress, another product that I discovered on Dr. Michael Murray’s website was GABA by a company called Natural Factors. It has helped ease the stress as well and helped keep me sleeping through the night.
In addition, I wanted to add that I too love the idea of “no electricity” nights occasionally. Our family cottage growing up had no electricity, and we occupied ourselves with the wonders of nature, outdoor sports, reading, board games, cooking on the wood stove, apple picking in the Fall, and the wonderful art of conversation around the table. Great memories that are cherished. So good to hear about conscious decisions made to preserve health through diet and lifestyle, and family time through such things as “no electricity” nights.
Deni says
CALM can be found at many vitamin or health stores. Price for a full size container vary so shopping around is a good idea. It is great stuff.
Christine says
Historical accounts, journals and diaries indicate that humans aren’t really meant to sleep a full 8 hours without waking. It’s not uncommon to wake after the first sleep cycle. The key is to remain in the dark, stay relaxed and allow the quiet environment to remain intact. It makes it much easier to fall back to sleep for a second cycle.
Once I learned about this a few years back I let go of a lot of tension surrounding this issue to sleep the whole night through. I don’t recall ever having slept an entire night without waking.
Now I don’t feel guilty or somehow defective for living with Traumatic Brain Injury complicated by Gluten Ataxia. I can wake several times a night but by using the techniques for quiet, dark, black out curtains, etc, even when I use the bathroom (a very low watt night light) I can return easily to sleep. With all the dry winter air I keep water beside the bed and turn the furnace down to 60 F at night. The cooler air helps me sleep as does the quiet. I don’t get so dried out either.
Marcia says
From what I’ve read, 5HTP is what helps you stay asleep. The melatonin you might want to take helps you fall asleep. Elana will probably know more than I do about this. Look into taking Kavinace at night also..natural product, very good.
The Knitty Gritty Homestead says
PS. We have black curtains on all our bedroom windows; they are pinned aside during the day, but at night they block out all light. I call them the Black Out curtains as if we’re living in London during the Blitz!
The Knitty Gritty Homestead says
This is a very timely post…I just wrote about toddlers and sleep on my blog! http://www.theknittygrittyhomestead.blogspot.ca/2014/01/awake-asleep-gently.html
After 13 months of getting very little sleep thanks to a baby who wanted to nurse ALL THE TIME, I had my first “full night’s” (6 hours) sleep last night. Tonight I need to get to bed earlier and cross my fingers that she’ll repeat her performance.
Our rituals for our children include a 10 minute “warning”…put on pjs, cuddle up for stories, a snack and warm milk at the kitchen table, then teeth brushing, tucking in, a story and a song (daddy does this part). I like to read a peaceful/pleasant book or write in my journal before I turn out the light but that doesn’t always happen…often I just pass out while nursing my littlest to sleep!
After a year of total and constant deep exhaustion, I am looking forward to feeling more rested. I’ve stopped drinking coffee and consuming carbs and sugar in the past few weeks and have noticed that when I do sleep, it is deeper and more peaceful!
Robyn says
Thanks for this. Since going through early menopause at 42, I have had trouble sleeping. I am going to try the no screen and dark room idea. I also like the idea of a bedtime ritual
Catherine says
We try to close down all screens at least 30 minutes before bedtime. That, plus sticking to a regular sleep schedule, have been major game changers.
Amy says
I love the idea of candlelight evenings. I think my kids would get a kick out of that – and I’d love the calmer bedtimes. A question – do you know if there is a specific color of light that should be avoided in evenings (I’m thinking specifically of night-lights)? you mentioned blue light from the screens – so does that mean we should avoid blue nightlights? despite the fact that I know a room should be completely dark, my kids are still afraid of ____ (fill in the blank) in a completely dark room. what color is good? yellow? green? I want to pick the lesser of the evils of a night-lighted room.
Judie says
Try Lowbluelights.com. We wear the glasses at night to watch tv and they work great at making you sleepy. You can get cheaper glasses if you google.
Amy says
thanks! will check it out.