A good night’s sleep is just as important as a healthy diet and regular exercise. With working extra hours, getting hooked on a TV series or scrolling through your phone, it can be easy to stay up late and skip the zzz’s. Dr Marissa Kelaher shares some tips to help you get to sleep faster.
Sleep is absolutely vital to health - so much so that lack of sleep can have a massive impact on well-being, and even shorten our lifespan.
Over recent decades people are working longer, leading busier lives, and as a result, sleeping less. Often sleep becomes an afterthought and we get used to getting by on very little sleep, then wonder why we're chronically tired, always getting sick, or struggling with weight or food cravings.
Most humans need 7-9 hours of sleep per night on a regular basis to stay well.
Getting less than six hours of shut-eye per night, long-term, shortens our lifespan (by around 13%), and increases the risk of multiple diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart attacks, dementia, and mental illness. It also suppresses our immunity (making us three times more likely to catch a cold) and even slows recovery from injuries.
Research shows that we are more likely to overeat and choose high calorie foods, and less likely to exercise when we’re tired. Lack of sleep also affects our day to day lives and makes it hard to concentrate and impacts on our memory and attention span.
This can result in a vicious cycle - when we don't get adequate sleep we increase our unhealthy food intake, exercise less, and unsurprisingly begin to gain weight. Then our well-being begins to decline, leading to worsening sleep due to chronic health conditions … and the cycle continues.
Focusing on sleep can often be the vital first step if you're trying to improve your health.
Here are some tips to sleep better at night:
Get natural light in the morning to help set your sleep wake cycle. Dim lights one hour before bed and avoid screen use at this time.
Try to avoid eating heavy meals a few hours before bedtime.
Get exercise during the day, ideally outdoors.
Avoid coffee within six hours of bedtime, and alcohol within three hours of bed time.
Try to relax before bed to switch off. Try yoga, breathing exercises, meditation, reading, listening to quiet music, or a warm bath.
Set aside a time each night a few hours before bed as 'worry time', where you write down or talk
about the things bothering you. This helps to avoid your mind starting to race when your head hits the pillow.
Keep your bedroom cool and dark and make it a room for sleep and sex only (i.e. don't take work to bed!)
Leave screens out of the bedroom, or put them in flight mode, and have a set time each night you turn them off, at least an hour before bed.
Have a regular bedtime and wake time and avoid 'catching up' too much on the weekend.
Limit day naps to 30 minutes or less. Napping more than this can decrease your body's sleep drive.
Can't sleep? Follow the 25minute rule - if you can't get to sleep after 25 minutes get up and do some quiet activities such as reading, stretching, or having an unsweetened warm drink such as herbal tea. Then wait till you're sleepy before going back to bed.
Dr Marissa Kelaher is a GP based at Nelson Family Medicine.
Check out Marissa’s blogs and health and wellness tips at thesimplicitydoctor.com or on Facebook and Instagram @thesimplicitydoctor
