Ten Sleep Tips to Start Today
Picture a Restful Night of Sleep
By Bluestone Psychiatric and Psychological Services
“Sleep is an investment in the energy you need to be effective tomorrow.” – Tom Rath
Did you know that when we sleep, it removes toxins from our brain? We do know that sleep serves as a way to revitalize and repair every system and organ in our bodies. Curiously, we do not know everything about the biological purpose of sleep. Quality sleep is critical to our health and wellness.
Ten Sleeping Tips Before Therapy and Psych Meds
If you are already sleeping for the recommended amount of time and you are not having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep until that alarm goes off, that’s great. Don’t change a thing. However, if you are not feeling good about the quantity or quality of your sleep, here are ten sleep hygiene behaviors to try before seeking professional help:
- Keep a regular sleep schedule: This means waking up and going to bed at generally the same times every day. The closer you get to a routine with your wake and sleep times, the easier it will be to fall asleep, stay asleep, and to wake more easily and to feel more refreshed in the morning.
- Avoid naps: Only take naps when necessary, limit them to about 30 minutes, and try to completely avoid naps after 3pm.
- Develop a bedtime ritual: This can be unique to you! You might do deep breathing, relaxing stretches, or enjoy a cup of caffeine-free tea. A hot shower or bath about two hours before bedtime raises your body temperature, and the cool-down period can help to trigger the onset of sleep. Read a book for a few minutes to wind down or listen to calming music or a relaxation recording. The most important thing is to avoid stressful material or conversations during this time.
- Avoid screens before and during sleep time: The general recommendation is to turn off all screens (e.g., phone, tablets, TV) at least 45 minutes before turning off the light and attempting sleep. This helps to minimize the impact of lighting and sounds to quiet our brain. Limit any stressful information or content we might absorb during this time we are trying to lead into restful sleep. Watching TV before and during sleep can be a hard habit to break, but it is negatively impacting the quality and likely the quantity of your restful sleep hours.
- Avoid substances: It is best to avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol for at least 5 hours before bedtime. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants and will interfere with your ability to fall asleep. Although drinking alcohol can initially feel relaxing, it interferes with our ability to stay asleep.
- Get moving!: 20-30 minutes of regular, daily exercise helps to improve our ability to fall asleep; however, avoid very intense exercise in the hours immediately before bedtime.
- Eat right: Healthy food choices also help to improve the quality of our sleep. If you feel hungry immediately before bed, have a light snack or a warm glass of milk which can aid in inducing sleep.
- Turn your clock away: If you tend to focus on your clock, turn it away from you or turn off your phone so you are not constantly checking the time. Checking the time leads to more anxiety or worry thoughts. This creates more difficulty falling asleep or getting back to sleep after waking.
- Your bed is for sleep!: Try to keep your bed and your bedroom a place for bedroom activities only. If you eat or watch television in bed, your brain connects your bed to more wakeful activities and this can interfere with your sleep. Your bedroom should be quiet, calm, and comfortable.
- The 20-minute rule: If you have been working on falling asleep for about 20-30 minutes with no luck, get out of bed and do something calming or boring. You might sit in a chair in your room or another room. Read relaxing literature (keep lighting to a minimum), and when you start to feel sleepy again, return to your bed. As mentioned in the tip above, if you connect not sleeping with being in your bed, this can also interfere with your sleep.
Sleep Amounts
How much sleep we need depends on factors such as our age and our gender. For optimal growth and functioning, typical amounts of recommended sleep for infants range from 16-18 hours while for adults the typical range is 7-9 hours. The recommendation for teens is typically around 9.5 hours. This can be a difficult number to hit for teens given their responsibilities with schoolwork and extracurricular activities. Research indicates women need slightly more sleep than men. Research also indicates that sleeping during the day or sleeping in on certain days of the week does not make up for nightly sleep deprivation.
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When we are not getting the right amount of sleep, or the quality of our sleep is poor, there are many negative effects. Sleep deprivation interferes with our brain’s ability to form new memories, it reduces our concentration and response times, and it increases irritability. Poor sleep can also increase the risk of many mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety and substance use disorders as well as increasing the risk of physical disorders such as obesity and high blood pressure. Lack of sleep can also increase our risk of accidents, reduce creativity, and negatively impact our performance in school, work or extracurricular activities.
The behaviors we engage in to help optimize the quantity and quality of our sleep are referred to as sleep hygiene behaviors. Consider the things you might do to maintain the health and appearance of your teeth, face, and hair on a daily basis. These are your daily hygiene behaviors. You may floss and brush your teeth to keep them looking white and keep your gums healthy, you may wash your face with a cleanser and moisturize to keep your skin looking and feeling healthy, and you may use products or brush your hair to keep it looking clean and shiny. We need to put the same effort into our sleep hygiene behaviors.
Combining Psychiatric Medication and Therapy
If you follow the recommendations above and you are still having difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or you struggle with insomnia or early morning awakening, please reach out for support. We highly recommend combining therapy with psychiatric medication or naturopathic treatment for sleep issues.
Our therapists can work with you individually. Our psychiatric medication providers can introduce you to non-addictive sleep supplements or medicines. This will help you determine if there are other factors that need to be addressed to improve your sleep such as anxious or racing thoughts before bedtime or they can help you to establish a sleep hygiene plan that helps you to improve your sleep behaviors.
Additional information by Allison Bashe, PhD and David A. Morris, LCSW
References:
Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep. Found at www.ninds.nih.gov
Caudill, M.A. (1995). Managing Pain before It Manages You. New York: Guildford Press.
Karafin, G.R. (June, 2013) Teen Sleep Issues and School Start Times. The Pennsylvania Psychologist Quarterly, pp. 20, 22.
Sleep Hygiene. Found at www.cci.health.wa.gov.au