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.
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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?
Walter says
Weight loss is not my issue but I do have problem falling asleep at night. I am a heavy computer user, I think this might be one of the reasons that affect my sleeping quality. Will try to turn off TV/computer earlier this evening and hope this will help.
Erika says
The best thing I ever did for my sleep was ban laptops from the bedroom and stop with the screen time 30 minutes before bedtime (I work full time and am working on a MS degree so I work into the evening, unfortunately). I get into bed about ten minutes before whatever “bedtime” is for me that night, and meditate, or lie in savasana, or just stare at the twinkly lights we have on the wall.
More recently, we’ve gotten blackout curtains that keep the bedroom absolutely dark at night, and we’ve started sleeping on the floor. We got rid of our bed and now sleep traditional Japanese style on thin padding on the floor. It’s been really amazing for both my sleep and my overall flexibility.
Lin B says
I do use my screen before bed, but I use an app on my Mac called Flux. It allows me to preset the lighting and color correction once the computer senses a lack of daylight. I can fine tune the screen to my home lighting and tweak out all the blue as well. I’m sure there is some kind of app like this of Windows users as well. Even if you don’t use it for sleep enhancement, it is definitely a nice break for your eyes. Works well for me to signal it’s time to wind down to my body.
Sandra says
I have struggled with sleep issues for many years. I have never found a doctor who is interested enough to really try to figure out why I fall asleep easily, but come wide wake after three hours, unable to return to sleep. I practice all the good “sleep hygiene” tips, meditate, eat a gluten-free, low sugar diet. I can get six hours of sleep only with sleep drugs, most of which leave me hungover in the mornings and not well rested. The one that works best is associated with early death.
Sofia says
Check out nutritionalbalancing.org
It changed my life and health around. It is the hardest program I have ever followed, but the health rewards/turn around has been worth it for me.
Carol Ortiz says
Check into a liver cleanse. It seems like when you’re waking up could be the time your liver is cleaning out. Google waking up/time the liver is cleaning out.
Gwyneth says
Yes, giving priority to a proper nights sleep isn’t always top of the list as long as we can keep going without it. Tuning out early from screens is the only one that seems so tremendously difficult because it often seems so relaxing and de-stressing. Thanks Kerry for the Natural Calm magnesium supplement tip.. I’ll try that.
Elle says
I like the idea of having a no-artificial light night once in a while.
I remember getting excited when the power went out when I was young. It was so much fun to have a candlelit dinner and I did find myself falling asleep early.
I have trouble falling asleep sometimes and I am a very light sleeper so your tips were helpful.
I have an app on my phone that plays “heavy rainfall” sounds and I find it very soothing and it puts me to sleep.
Lauri Rottmayer says
These are great ideas and ones that I use. I learned long ago that a small light, like the one on the alarm clock was enough to disturb me. So now, pitch dark and the triple play: chamomile tea, CALM and melatonin. I use and UP band and am fascinated with the sleep info I get each night. With my triple play, I almost always have more deep sleep, less light sleep, and sleep for 8 hours. :-)
Julie Kinnear says
I remember probably the very first time I went to the gym, there were two guys who looked very good and seemed pretty accustomed to working out. And one of them says “Man, by all I have learned, there are three equally important things: work out well, eat well and sleep well”. Ever since I try to sleep as well as possible every single night, we should not forget that.
Great article, thank you!
Naomi says
A quick question for those of you with children that are terrified of the dark, I’ve heard that red/orange light night lights are more ‘acceptable’ and am thinking a step further perhaps. What about Himalayan Salt lamps? Do you think they would help – our kids don’t fall asleep easily at all, and staying asleep isn’t easy. I’ve had to resort to having a light on in an adjacent room to get them to calm down. They also catch every cold under the sun (kindergarten…) and end up with lowered immunity.
Will try the blackout curtains, which I hope will help they stay asleep, but that obviously doesn’t help the ‘terrified of the dark’ thing.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
shelley says
I’d love to know if these worked or where to get, because at 53 I am still terrified of the dark. I had a hospital prescribe prazosin (1mg) for PTSD night terrors which has worked excellently for 2+ years. Without it I get stuck in my nightmares and really wake up exhausted and disoriented.
Sleepy Mommy says
I am an RA/Fibromyalgia/Chronic Pain and Fatigue sufferer (and a long list of other issues…) and suffer from horrific insomnia issues as well as hypersomnia due to the “heavy hitting” medications I have had to be on to control the medical issues and progression of the disease processes. My other “hat” I wear is being a psychotherapist, mainly specializing in treating children/families with trauma. Sleep anxiety is an interesting issue children have (ie- monsters, fear of the dark and the unknown, etc.) and can return later in life for many reasons. For children young enough to believe- I often use techniques to help them FEEL the sense of control. This may include letting them make “Monster Spray” which is usually a blend of Lavender/water/glycerin (emollient factor) in my office and letting them decorate the label to establish more buy-in. Then we develop a ritual to fit the fear- spraying their bed or thresholds, etc. at night or even in daytime if there is a specific fear in the mornings. I use TF-CBT and more traditional CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) for youngsters and my clients who are older. Creating a “safe place” for kids is a big deal. Helping them recognize that their homes and bedrooms are safe places and that they have things there making them feel safe – drawing a picture with them as they imagine what their dream of a safe place would be is an easy way to get them to articulate what makes them feel safe. Parents can use this information to enhance feelings of ease at night. Weighted blankets (can be made as easy as 2 pieces of fleece tied on the edges with washers simply stitched inside the edge) that kids can help make their own- great project that is pretty cheap! Teaching kids to take control of nightmares using simple ideas like keeping a night journal where they can “trap” bad dreams and lock them up (little diary with lock OR cheap journal or steno book with a binder clip to secure it shut) will transfer control to a child. Teaching kids to use something like an ink pen or toy that makes a clicking sound (I’ve even suggested a dog-training clicker as it won’t mark the sheets) to help kids learn to “click” through “episodes” of alternate endings to their dreams and take control to CHANGE how their dreams end to change bad experiences to good. I suggest consulting with someone who specializes in such things if the problem is significant but these are ideas to spark the imagination for helping kids sleep. Usually it’s a control issue on some level, regardless of there being trauma associated or simple childhood insecurities.
For adults such as what Shelley is referring to- that is more complex. After such a long and rough road with sleep issues I would suggest looking at what lies beneath. Seeking help from a therapist could do wonders to helping to figure out what the issue is inside the mind. Instead of numbing the issue with meds, it would be nice to know WHY 53 years of sleep issues exists. If I had 53 years of what I consider to be more like sleep torture as it sounds Shelley is certainly experiencing, I would be anxious for sure! CBT or even EMDR may be a welcomed new approach to treating the sleep dysfunction. Often times we get so used to living and even thriving at times in a state of dysfunction that we forget that is no way to live well- It is more existing. My apologies for a lengthy response but among the great information shared by everyone, I felt this component was yet to be considered.
Good Luck to you all!
Debbie MacInnis says
Another helpful product for reducing blue light influences after sundown is a program called “Flux.” It can be installed on your computer and it automatically adjusts the light emanating from your computer screen to match the time of day.
Here’s a link to the site:
http://justgetflux.com/