Sleep. Snooze. Kip. Slumber. Forty Winks. Siesta.

No matter what you call sleep and no matter how old you are, it is hugely important. Whilst I have always known this and taught this to my children I have seldom acknowledged it myself. Very much to my detriment.

Sleep is one of our many involuntary actions and without any doubt, it is arguably one of the most essential.

Without the 'right amount' of sleep we simply cannot function effectively. It might be obvious but it is as essential to our bodies, our minds and our health as eating, drinking and breathing. It is vital for maintaining both good mental and physical health. Whilst we sleep our bodies repair themself and restore our brains, not just our bodies.

By getting the right amount of sleep you are enabling not only your body to repair but also increase your body's ability to fight off infections and ensure you are sick less often. It can enable you to be more consistent with your weight loss/gain (although I think this has more to do with your ability to make the right choices).

It may or may not be obvious but getting the right amount of sleep ensures that you shouldn't need stimulants like caffeine and sugar to enable you to succeed throughout the day.

What I want to make clear is that this post isn't about what is good or bad about sugar or caffeine or recreational drugs... There are no judgements here but #spoiler-alert I am going to suggest some things that help me and would love to hear about what helps you.

In my mind, what good sleep does for us is promote huge benefits, like:

Improving your mood.

Whether you have had the luxury of sleeping in on a day off from work or had that early night and have awoken fresh the next day. Everything feels better when you have had a good night's sleep. But imagine that this could happen most days. I still relish the possibility.

I am not going to suggest this is something that can be improved 100% all the time, every night because life does get in the way even with those who claim differently.

But with the right strategy, you can get back in control of your responses to situations. You can help yourself nullify the natural responses to stress and become the better version of yourself who can react to these situations.

Reducing your stress.

Stress is awful. Stress and anxiety bundled together is far worse and yes, I am more than aware that other, stronger, words can also be used to describe it.

Whether you are affected by lots of small stress points that come from your job, your home life or a mixture of the two or maybe there is one big stress point, like anxiety that is borne from ill health or someone else's actions. Either way, the size and scale are hugely personal and can be completely mentally and physically limiting.

I am not going to touch on support, seeking help or 'trying to fix' what is going on... I am not a professional and if you are going through something like this - then please seek support and help from a professional. I will always be there for a chat or a moan or whatever you need - that goes without saying.

But at the same time, sleep can help in this situation. It can make you more rational and give you a greater sense of self-worth. It can enable you to process feelings and emotions and enable you to have a stronger coping mechanism.

This brings us to the next point about being able to think more clearly.

Thinking more clearly.

A lack of sleep interferes with our ability to be rational and our ability to process and react to situations and our responses are often also embellished with caffeine or sugar that are generally consumed to counteract the feeling of tiredness. It can also adversely affect the time that it takes to process information.

We should always try to be the best versions of ourselves and I am guilty of constantly running my body battery low. Our body battery is a combination of your heart rate, activities performed that drain against your reserves and more importantly the restful activities and sleep that you complete 'claim back' as building your reserves back up.

Thinking like this and visualising your energy spend/save is incredibly powerful as it can help process where you are in this cycle. I have a Garmin watch that I use to track my workouts and my sleep and it takes the processing out by displaying my body battery calculations for me. Not everyone gets along with wearable technology so that might not be your thing but being aware of your 'spending' can certainly help you with your internal conversations about 'saving' your body energy. But remember this is a yardstick and a motivational tool to point you in the right direction not a carrot-coloured stick to beat yourself with.

Get along better with people.

With a better mindset, a healthier disposition and a better reaction to situations you will find that you start to enjoy life and company much better. In turn, other people also enjoy your company as well. You become a better version of yourself. You get your fight back - which can help if you are dealing with some challenges.

So. What is the point of this rambling?

I have some tips and tricks that have helped me through some dark days and enabled me to process when I need to and to successfully come through that period.

1. Get a better relationship with your phone and tablet at bedtime. Set a realistic time for you to be 'in' bed and limit your device time to before that. Find something 'analogue' that you can do. Read, write, draw. To be honest, I cheat with this and use audiobooks on my phone but I remove the phone out of my direct 'area'.
2. Use body scans to align your body with yourself. A body scan is like a form of personal check-in. It is as simple as sitting still and listening to your body. Acknowledging that you have pain or discomfort or just tightness or pressure and that is it. I must admit that I follow the prescribed way to do it, I don't lie down to do this. I do it when I feel that I need to and I have found that it helps more and more the more often I complete it.
3. Find something you enjoy and do more of it. This can take many forms but for me, this is time spent with my family doing arts and crafts or taking the dog for an extended walk. Sometimes it's being quiet, sometimes it is having conversations and sometimes just not being 'me' enables me to find the 'me' I am looking for and gives me a glimpse of the person that I want to be.
4. Learn how to reset your bedtime. It is easy to think that you just set a bedtime, fulfil your ritual and poof you are asleep. I hope that is the case. I know it isn't always the case for me. if you do awake in the night and can't just roll over and go back to sleep, learn to reset your bedtime. Get up. Go do something analogue. Write down your thought or worry that woke you but acknowledge that there is nothing that you can do right now. Read, write, draw but don't overstimulate yourself and then start the process of sleep again.

This is not a finate list to be sure and I often change what I think is useful to fit with my life and what is going on around me.

What tips and tricks do you use? What could I try to help bolster my resilience.