Sleep
How important is Sleep and sleep patterns to our Mental Health?
In its basic form, who gets grumpy when they haven’t had enough sleep? I know I do.
Multiply that by several days, even weeks ad months and you can see why poor mental health directly connects with lack of or inconsistent sleep patterns.
There are many a news story about video games being bad and not conducive to connections in society, but that is not true, as many people play games in a community, just not in a traditional way you might think of. What is much more concerning is the time and impact many hours of gaming has on sleep patterns. And it is not just gaming by any means, this was just an example of there not being a night-time routine.
1. So what does a good night-time routine look like?
a) Having a set time for bed each night is a key step. If you struggle to work out your time to sleep, if you need to get up at 7am, you need to be in bed by 11pm. Most adults only need 7-8 hours sleep to be well rested.
b) As in series 1, we mentioned food and drink to support wellbeing. Limiting caffeine in an afternoon can improve the ability to go to sleep. With alcohol, it often makes a person sleepy, but it often disrupts later sleep and gives a restless night of “good” rest.
c) Restful bedrooms are a way of setting the tone for sleep. A cool, dark and quiet room is a good way to invest in your sleep routine. Opening windows and using blackout blinds are a great way to have peace and darkness.
d) Stay awake during the day. It may not be a choice for many, but often an afternoon nap can seem like a great idea, but limiting the nap to a maximum of 1 hour is crucial as to not interfere with nighttime sleep patterns.
e) Physical exercise in a morning or early afternoon can really benefit sleep. By working out, in any capacity, this naturally tires you out and boosts quality sleep. Do avoid
working out to near bedtime though as it stimulates you and harms the ability to sleep for a while after.
f) Manage worries, have a pad and pen nearby, to write down issues, either before bed or if you wake during the night. This habit enables you to get your worries out and then can deal with them the next day.
These are useful tools to have in your kitbag and by changing one or two degrees and incorporating a time of sleep in a positive environment, it can massively impact positively on your wellbeing.
2. Technology and sleep
These two things together do not work well. As mentioned previously a bedroom should be a sanctuary before bedtime, minimal stimulants and space for your brain to calm down in a dark quiet place. Tech really impacts this, as it is a bright light, the information absorbed often stimulates us and therefore is an exact opposite to what is needed for rest.
Can you leave your tech outside the room, or not switch a bedroom TV on at bedtime. Another way is to have a cut off 30 minutes before sleep and potentially meditate or similar, to release the stimulation from you and then be ready for sleep.
3. Broken Sleep
Along with the notebook method, mentioned above, there is another way to promote the broken sleep being managed better. If you wake up unexpectedly, get out of bed, make a hot drink, take 20 minutes to have the drink before returning to bed. Having a hot drink makes your core body temperature warmer, which leads to better sleep once returning to the bed.
4. Drug/ Alcohol use and sleep
Alcohol as described above can impact the length of sleep as mentioned above. Where drugs are concerned, this is a large issue, as we don’t know exactly what is in illegal drugs. However, some drugs are meant to keep you awake, so things like LSD, ecstasy and similar are really bad for sleep patterns. Avoiding drugs can improve sleep over a period of time, whilst the after effects are removed from your system.
Over the years, self care is often put last in the list of things we look at, but looking after our own bodies and rest is massively important for wellbeing. Please consider these options today.