Top Tips On World Sleep Day!

Today (Friday 16th March) is World Sleep Day. So while my kids are still sleeping I thought it would be a good opportunity to put together some of my top tips for getting a good nights sleep. Much of my work now is centred around building physical and mental resilience to stress and encouraging Managers to talk about Mental Health in the workplace. Sleep plays an integral part in this discussion as i'm sure you'll all agree a good nights sleep can make a huge difference to our energy levels, mood, motivation and general feeling of wellbeing.

Those of you with children will appreciate the importance of a good nights sleep. Routine here is the key word, we promote routine to facilitate better sleep for our children but how many of us have a good routine ourselves? Not many! So the collection of tips here can be put together to re-establish a routine for yourself once again. If you find these this useful please leave a comment or drop me a message to let me know!

Timings - where possible its a good idea to try are go to bed and get up at the same times every day. For me it's 10:15pm - 6am. This provides me with around 7 hours of sleep time.

Relaxation - Find something you can do before bed that relaxes you, usual suggestions are reading, meditating or taking a bath. My relaxation comes in the form of stretching and doing my back care exercises. I find these both relax me and eliminate any aches and pains when trying to get to sleep.

Light Exposure - The light we get from devices is arguably one of the key contributors to poor sleep. When we are exposed to light and especially blue light from devices our bodies increase the production of cortisol (The Stress Hormone) which actually lowers our production of Melatonin which is crucial to a good depth of sleep. So don't keep your phones next to your bed!

Stimulants - We drink them, eat them and smoke them! Stimulants are the exact opposite of what we want for a good nights sleep. Limiting stimulants to the morning will allow your body to rebalance throughout the day and support your ability to relax before bed.

Tryptophan - Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and one of the amino acids is called Tryptophan. When consumed it increases the production of Melatonin which as we found out earlier supports our ability to get into a deeper depth of sleep. You can find Tryptophan in Turkey, Cheese, Sunflower Seeds, Beans & Milk. If you google "foods rich in tryptophan" you'll find all the information you need.

Exercise - Gentle exercise is a good strategy before bed but high intensity exercise will leave you feeling tired and wired. A gentle walk, yoga or stretching are all great options.

The next step is putting it all together. This brings me back to the magic word ROUTINE! Build yourself a bedtime routine.

If you would like more information on sleep or any other elements of Wellbeing you can visit our website or e-mail me directly.

Andy Romero-Birkbeck

UK Wellbeing Coach Limited

[email protected]