Stop Stressing About Sleep: Our Best Hacks to Sleep Easily
Stop Stressing About Sleep: Our Best Tips and Hacks for Deep Rest
By Georgia A. Lewis 邵洛源
12 min read
Prioritizing Sleep
It’s no secret that we live in a sleep-deprived society. In fact, according to the CDC, one third of adults don’t get enough sleep every night. That's tough news, because not getting enough sleep can have serious health consequences — it can increase your risk for obesity and Type 2 diabetes, Psychosis, vascular diseases, increase your blood pressure (hypertension), reduce immune function, and even lead to memory loss over time. If you're having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night because of stressors in your life (like work deadlines or relationship issues), there are steps you can take right now to help improve your quality rest. The first thing is learning how to change your mindset about sleep: instead of viewing it as a luxury item in life (or something
that only happens when you fall asleep!), view it as a necessity that must happen every single night if you want to feel rested during the day.
It’s important to remember that you’re not stuck with insomnia. If you have problems falling asleep or staying asleep, there are steps you can take to get the quality rest you need. The first thing to do is change your mindset about sleep.
One way to do so would be to think about clinical neuroscientist Colin A. Espie's "'5 Principles' of good sleep health" where people are encouraged to Value, Prioritise, Personalise, Trust, and Protect their sleep. Sleep is not a daily "want," but rather a "need" that requires a healthy mindset, our utmost value, prioritization (energy), trust (in the process), and respect (protecting our health in the most efficient manner that adheres to our fast paced world).
The second thing to do to improve your sleep mindset would be to figure out what is keeping you awake at night. Are there things that keep you up at night? Do they happen every single day or just some nights? If so, then try to eliminate them from your life as much as possible. If not, then think about what could be causing your insomnia. Is it something physical like an illness or injury? Or is it psychological like stress from work or school?
Reasons for lack of sleep:
- Stress
- Lack of personal relaxation time
- Absence of a consistent routine
- Overstimulated (technology, news, etc...)
- Lack of exercise
- Too much caffeine
- Alcohol consumption
- Oversleeping
- Napping for too long
- Obstructive sleep apnea
- Substance abuse
- Chronic pain
- Obesity
- Smoking tobacco products
- Excessive worrying and anxiety
- Sleeping with a partner who snores
- Restless leg syndrome
- A hot room or bedroom
- A noisy environment
- You have a new baby in the house
- Working more than one job
- Making ends meet
- Overthinking, worrying about past events, future plans or something that has yet to happen
- Anxiety
- Depression
-
PTSD
Lack of stimulus control
Stress Management Techniques for Better Sleep
There are a lot of attributing factors to not being able to fall or stay asleep, or sleep enough that have been noted above. Many of these issues can be resolved through ensuring you create the best sleep environment (sleep hygiene!) for and within yourself: avoiding large meals, caffeine, screen time and alcohol before bed, ensuring your bedroom is free from electronics, bright light, and disruptive sounds. One of the biggest contributing factors would be stress and the effects of both subconscious and conscious stress on our psyches during bedtime.
"Remember, don’t stress out about sleep…Disrupted sleep is a normal response to stress, and it is okay to have a few nights of poor sleep as you adjust to new routines and big changes to your work and personal life. But with some simple measures you can preserve your sleep and improve your well-being during these uncertain times. We can’t control what’s happening in the world right now, but we can control our behaviors and dampen the impact of the emerging pandemic on our sleep.”
- Suzanne Bertisch, MD, MPH, Harvard University Medical School on "Strategies to promote better sleep in these uncertain times" 2020
So, yeah. Stress can absolutely contribute to insomnia. Many of us have lived and are still living through a global pandemic that induced heaps of stress in all of our lives... so we know this sentiment well. As Dr. Bertisch alludes to, whether it is a global pandemic or other external stress-inducing factors, we can still control our OWN behaviors to preserve our sleep hygiene, and even improve it over time.
If you’re stressed and you want to get better sleep, there are some things you can do! For a start, try taking a look at your stress levels in the context of what else is going on in your life. If it seems like something bigger than just stress—and if your other habits aren’t helping either—it might be time to seek professional help or advice from an expert who can help guide you on this journey towards more restful nights.
Another way to help routinize good sleep hygiene and manage stress would be to foster a holistic and consistent daily routine that includes healthy eating, exercise, relaxation, mindfulness, and a regular bedtime/risetime.
If you can, try to spend some time outside every day. Even if it’s just for a few minutes, the fresh air could do wonders for your sleep. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to get some exercise! Regular workouts are one of the best ways to lower stress levels and improve quality of life overall—and better sleep is often just one happy side effect. In addition to regularly exercising (anything from casually walking from point A to point B, to going to your intense hit workout class!), incorporating other forms of consistency is crucial. Eating proper meals (or at least snacking when hungry and when meals are not available/convenient) throughout the day to have enough energy to get through the hours is important for many reasons.
In addition to choosing and sticking to a regular bedtime, it is critical that you embed strict discipline with regards to allocating relaxation and mindfulness time during your day. These moments can look like anything from reading, journaling, cooking, drawing, dancing, painting, to meditating, stretching, conversing, verbal affirming, California stretching (lying there), all all the potential other "-ings" that may bring you relaxation and mindfulness.
Once your sleep hygiene is consistent and a proper stress management plan in place, you’re ready to consider nonpharmacologic approaches to insomnia and how you can incorporate these sleep-helpers into your daily stress management plan and bedtime routine. For example, Potli's CBD (cannabidiol won't get you "high" because it is one of the many cannabinoid compounds found in cannabis without the psychoactive properties), Dream Honey utilizes a high concentration of CBD and CBD ("nighttime cousin" to CBD if you will) to assist consumers in deep, uninterrupted sleep. Another example, would be magnesium, a
mineral that’s crucial to bone density, a normal heart rhythm, and hypertension control. Some small studies have linked magnesium to longer sleep duration and better-quality sleep in older adults. The mineral is abundant in high-fiber foods like nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans and dark leafy greens.
Sweet Dreams Pollinators...
I hope this article has helped you to better understand sleep hygiene and stress, as well as how to manage it. It’s important that we all try our best to get good sleep and manage stress because it can affect many areas of our lives—including our relationships with others, work performance levels and even physical health!
Purchase that jar of Dream for a stressless sleep 😴 now!
🐝 🍯 💤
Citations:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8280471/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279320/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9285041/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5310097/
https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/sleep_hygiene.html
https://sleepeducation.org/healthy-sleep/healthy-sleep-habits/
https://connect.uclahealth.org/2021/05/17/sleep-hygiene-first-step-in-getting-a-good-nights-rest/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK547676/
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#sleep