Better Sleep
With the New Year upon us, there has never been a better time to try and improve your sleep. Sleep is critical to maintaining our physical and mental health, giving us the energy, drive, and immunity to live our lives.
This article provides five New Year's resolutions for better sleep, with links to studies to help you understand how they will help you sleep better.
Let's jump in!
Turn your smartphone off before you go to bed
Mounting evidence suggests that daily smartphone habits like social media trigger elevated stress, anxiety, and depression – all of which keep you awake by disrupting the hormones that regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
Whether you relentlessly refresh your social media feed or endlessly search Google for solutions to problems, these activities can make it harder to fall asleep, especially when you do them close to bedtime (or worse) in bed.
We recommend turning your smartphone off an hour before bedtime, so you cannot pick it up and use it on impulse.
Avoid caffeine six hours before you go to bed - Sleep Better
Most of us know caffeine as a stimulant, providing a welcome boost in the morning and before working out.
However, caffeine's effects last up to six hours after consumption, meaning it can disrupt your sleep if you consume it at 4 pm and go to bed before 10 pm.
This study found that caffeine has significant effects on sleep taken six hours before bed, so it is worthwhile keeping your caffeine consumption in check.
You can find out more about caffeine and sleep here.
Create a sleep schedule (and stick to it)
A sleep schedule comprises a specific time you go to bed and wake up.
The beauty of a sleep schedule is the longer you stick to it, the easier it is to fall asleep at reasonable times. You also naturally wake up close to your alarm time and feel less groggy and muggy after waking up.
We have an article covering how to create a sleep schedule. The bottom line is when you steadfastly stick to wake-up times, your go-to-sleep times fall in line over a few weeks. Stick with your sleep schedule, and you will be fine.
Deal with stress and anxiety once and for all
It's easier said than done to banish stress and anxiety, but you can perform mental exercises to give yourself a break from stress and worries.
The NHS recommends a talking therapy called CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), which teaches lessons on making sense of overwhelming problems and feelings and dealing with them helpfully and practically.
However, CBT works for some, but not everyone.
Another excellent option is meditation with one of the many free apps available – just make sure you are wise to the in-app purchases on offer.
It's also crucial to recognise the link between anxiety and depression (anxious people are more likely to develop depression and vice versa). Both are classed as mental health problems that require different treatments.
Vitamin up!
Whether you work a 9 to 5 or are a new parent on maternity leave struggling to sleep because of your baby, taking the right vitamins can help you sleep better and make you feel better when you don't get enough sleep.
Our article covering the best nutrients, minerals, and vitamins for sleep covers everything, but here are the main picks:
- Vitamin B12 - B12 is necessary to produce melatonin (sleep hormone), which regulates your circadian rhythms.
- Vitamin D – Vitamin D is a hormone that activates serotonin synthesis. Serotonin is a precursor to melatonin.
- Magnesium – Magnesium maintains your mitochondria, which produces steroid hormones, including those that regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
However, don't jump into supplements without identifying deficiencies first – you can ask your GP for blood tests to determine if you have any deficiencies.
If you enjoyed this article, discover more sleep tips here.