I've finished reading
Why We Sleep by Mathew Walker and as far as I'm concerned, sleep is no longer something I'll treat as something that can be dispensed with for trivial reasons, like watching something on TV, surfing Youtube or posting here on pink fish. Don't get me wrong, if Mahler 3 is playing in town I'll definitely go and see it even if it means I get home late and miss out on some sleep. But nights like that will be few and far between from now on because, with me being a natural morning lark, I know the chances of making up lost sleep with a long lie-in the following morning are slim to none. In a nutshell, come ten past ten, it's bed or bust!
I've already posted a few things Walker says can help improve sleep but here's the full list:
- go to bed at the same each night and get up at the same time each morning as often as possible - regularity is king!
- sleep in cool conditions: 18 degrees Celsius is ideal for most people;
- avoid caffeine and alcohol as much as possible if not entirely;
- avoid large meals late at night - a very small snack is okay;
- avoid medicines that disrupt sleep - consult your GP if medication is affecting your sleep;
- do something relaxing in the hour or two before you go to bed to give your mind the opportunity to unwind, as it were;
- avoid napping early/mid-evening and if you’re having difficulty sleeping at night, avoid daytime napping after 3pm;
- avoid exposure to strong light and/or strong screen light in the evening, ideally cutting the latter off two or three hours before going to bed;
- if you must use an alarm clock, use one that eases you into wakefulness rather than one that rudely awakens so you don’t experience the stress of fight/flight response
- don’t hit that snooze button as you expose yourself to stress every time the alarm goes off so either get up or go back to sleep;
- if you go to bed and find you can’t sleep - or wake up during the night and find yourself unable to fall back asleep for a significant amount of time - get up and do something relaxing till you feel sleepy to avoid associating your bed with wakefulness;
- remove clocks from view in the bedroom to avoid clock-watching anxiety;
- avoid exercising within 2 or 3 hours of when you will go to bed as it takes a long time for your body to cool down enough to allow the onset of sleep;
- expose yourself to natural sunlight for at least 30 minutes each day (mmm, I live in Scotland...)
- avoid taking sleeping pills as much as possible - they should be considered as a sleeping aid only as a last resort and only if all else fails!