Sleep hygiene - Setting up a nightly routine
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute sums up the importance of sleep quite well: "sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety". Generally, the way we feel throughout the day can be linked to how we slept the night before and the culmination of the previous night's sleep. At Stasis, we believe there are a few things people can adjust to improve sleep quality; one is sleep hygiene.
The Sleep Foundation, the CDC, and Harvard Medical School, among other respected organizations, share similar perspectives encompassing sleep hygiene. A consistent routine is key. Limiting caffeine within 6 hours and alcohol within 3 hours of bed should be your norm, as well as removing electronics from the bedroom, going to bed when you are tired, using light to your advantage, and exercising early in the day.
Many of you may be aware of the trendy blue light glasses that are sold to block blue light from computer screens and phones to limit eye strain and reduce the blue light impact on the circadian rhythm. There are conflicting studies about whether this is true or not, but what we do know is that light intensity does play a role in at least falling asleep. For this reason, we recommend limiting bright lights up to 1-2 hours before bedtime. For those that are going to school, or having to work later into the night, try lowering the brightness of your computer screen as the room you are working in gets darker. The last thing you want is a super bright screen surrounded by a dark room.
Setting a routine and initiating it at the same time every night is beneficial for quality sleep. Sleep routines are like any physical training routine - life happens, and available time somehow gets absorbed by everything else. If available time is extremely tight for you, try just a 10-15 minute routine. Some examples that can be worked into a short time frame include a downregulation breathing routine, reading, or conducting a five-sense check-in. If your daily schedule is go, go, go right up to bedtime, more than likely, your sympathetic nervous system is overly active compared to your parasympathetic branch. A short 10-15 minute routine can make a huge difference and stimulate your parasympathetic response. For someone with more time, a pre-bed routine can be much longer. For example, my typical sleep routine starts a little over 1 hour before my regular bedtime. I ensure unnecessary lights are turned off, and needed lights are dimmed, then take a 5 minute cold shower. This is followed up with 20-30 minutes of reading, a five-sense check-in, and a 15-minute down-regulation breathing session. There are times when the 1-hour routine is not feasible and also times when I barely make it through reading before falling asleep. The key is finding a routine that works most of the time, both in length and activities, and listening to your body.