Getting Better Sleep: Part Four

So far in this blog series, we’ve talked about setting your sleeping goal and overcoming the barriers of a busy schedule and sleep anxiety. Now, let’s talk about what to do if you’re someone who has a hard time going to bed in part because you just physically don’t feel tired enough to go to bed at bedtime.

Day time tricks

Your night time energy level at bed time is at least partially based on what you did during the day. Makes sense, right? If you slept a lot, didn’t move around much, and had a pretty chill day in a dimly lit room, you might not be especially sleepy and ready for more rest at your set bed time. What we do during the day, effects what we do at night.

You might hate me for it, but let’s start with the basics: the drugs. What are you putting into your body during the day that might be effecting your sleep cycles? Yup. I’m going to talk about the big ones: caffeine and sugar. These two culprits have huge affects on my clients anxieties and sleep and consistently, they report a decrease in struggles with both after decreasing their consumption. It’s a sad day, but it’s true. If you identify as an anxious person, I beg of you to consider decreasing or quitting your caffeine intake altogether. It makes THAT big of a difference for THAT many people. As a person born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and its infinite coffee stands, I promise I don’t make that request of you lightly. I know the struggle is real.

In addition to monitoring your caffeine and sugar intake, this week start noticing what things in general you put into your body during the day that might make it more difficult to sleep at night. That could be certain medications, missing drinking enough water or eating enough nutrients, eating foods that cause digestive upset or acid reflux, and of course, any drugs outside of sugar and caffeine like alcohol and other stimulants. If you feel able, consider tracking these variables to see what might be affecting you, especially when it comes to timing of medication if there are known side effects of sleep disruption and how much caffeine you’re drinking. If you drink more than 1 serving per day, it’s a good chance that the amount and/or timing of your caffeine intake is disrupting your sleep. Insert sad face here.

I know it’s a lot to ask, but if you can wean yourself down or even off of daily caffeine and/or sugar, over time, usually several weeks or less, the body won’t rely on it for energy any longer. That’s right! You won’t need it. You’ll notice you feel more rested, less irritable and less groggy when you wake up. That cup of coffee or bottle of soda was telling you lies this whole time.

After that big talk, let’s talk about some changes that will hopefully be a little bit easier to digest. Exposing yourself to brighter lights during the day can also help stimulate your mind to being in an “on” and awake mindset, so that at bed time, you can start dimming the lights and help cue yourself to begin slowing down and into a “slow” and sleep mindset. Increasing how much you move your body can also help: both by increasing energy and motivation levels during the day, as well as help you be more tired so that you can power down at night.

Finally, two more notes on your sleeping routines in general. First, if you set a bed time, also set a target wake time. In an ideal world, if you got the amount of sleep you’re shooting for and felt rested, when would your body naturally want to arise? That’s your wake time. If you’re struggling with going to bed, ask yourself what time you’re getting up. If you’re getting up late, you’ll be going to bed late, too. Last but not least, a note on napping: although I am a big, pro-nap person, when my people tell me they’re struggling with sleep, I ask them to work on limiting their nap sessions. If you feel you need a nap, that’s totally fine, but practice limiting it to ideally 15-30 minutes, just once per day. If you must, an hour. But any more than that is sure to negatively affect your sleep cycles at night and actually be causing more problems than it’s fixing.

Sleep sleep here we come

As you can see, there are a lot of changes you can make to your day time routines, habits, and activities that can actually prepare you for better rest at night. It makes sense when you think about it, but we’re not usually taught healthy sleep wake cycles and have to figure it out for ourselves.

This week, I want to personally challenge you to make at least one change each day: maybe that means setting a wake time, limiting naps, or finally starting to cut back on the caffeine. You can try one, different thing each day, or start with one thing, then add a second, third, and fourth until you’ve added seven changes by the end of the seventh day. Whatever you feel comfortable with, go for it! Just start with what makes the most sense and is practical for your readiness level. Try ‘em out, and we’ll meet back here next week to talk more about the next phase of addressing your sleep: your sleeping environment. See ya there!