Sleep Hygiene
In this next section, we are going to try to identify the areas in your current sleep routine that may be maintaining your insomnia (i.e. perpetuating factors) and introduce a regular sleep routine with healthy habits. The goal is to re-train your body to fall asleep more easily and sleep more soundly. You’ve probably heard of dental hygiene, which includes habits like brushing and flossing that maintain the health of your teeth and gums. Similarly, we use the term “good sleep hygiene,” for practices that help maintain the quality and quantity of your sleep.
Humans are creatures of habits. Sometimes, we do things repeatedly without even knowing it. We are like a machine on autopilot! And sometimes, we do things without realising the full impact they may have on our sleep health too. It may be a habit that begins as a solution to an earlier problem, but then the solution may end up having the opposite of the desired effect.
Therefore, maintaining good sleep hygiene can help eliminate factors that disrupt sleep and promote factors that benefit sleep.
Below is an image of a bedroom. Navigate through the room by identifying and clicking on what you think might be good sleep hygiene hazards. There are 7 “hazards” to spot. Each one is accompanied by an explanation. Review these explanations and evaluate how well you practise good sleep hygiene. If you identify areas where you currently do things differently, we will try to suggest some changes you can make this week, to see if following these practices leads to an improvement to your sleep.
MOODLE ENTERSession 1
General
It’s important to note that whilst this is general guidance about maintaining good sleep hygiene, there are individual differences in how these may or may not affect one’s sleep. Eliminating certain sleep habits that are not helping with getting a good quality of sleep, is only the first step towards creating a healthier and more beneficial sleep pattern.
Take a look at the sleep hygiene checklist below with a summary from the interactive exercise and some tips for good quality sleep.
Avoid clock-watching
Guestimating how much time we have left until our alarm goes off makes us more aware of the passing of time and of the fact that we’re not sleeping.
Not falling asleep in turn can make us anxious and may trigger thoughts and worries about the consequences of not sleeping.
Avoid consuming stimulating substances near bedtime
While alcohol can help people fall asleep, this effect wears off after a few hours. As the body processes the alcohol, sleep becomes more fragmented and less restful.
While nicotine can help you feel relaxed, nicotine is a stimulant that activates your mind and body, making it harder to sleep.
Drinking too much caffeine during the day stops us from powering down at night. Best to limit the amount throughout the day and stop consuming caffeinated drinks after 3pm.
Make your room sleep-ready
Use blackout curtains if possible as darkness triggers the secretion of the sleep hormone melatonin, and if you sleep with a bedside light on, use one that is dim and calming. You can also try to wear an eye mask or wear earplugs.
Make the room cool, but not too cold. The optimum temperature for sleep (on average) is around 18 degrees Celsius. Core body temperature lowers during the night and this begins a couple of hours before you go to sleep. Having a cool room may help to support sleep - both onset of sleep and sleep quality.
Don’t exercise within 3 hours of bedtime
This will activate hormones designed to make us feel alert.
Exercise can interfere with falling asleep because of the way that it affects body temperature. When our body temperature is high, we’re most alert and active. As our body temperature decreases, we become less active and sleepier and this can help us fall asleep and stay asleep longer.
Since it takes our body temperature a few hours to cool down, it’s best to exercise at least 3 hours before bedtime.
Avoid lying in at the weekend and maintain the same sleeping and waking schedule
Despite our intentions on trying to 'catch-up on sleep', this disrupts our circadian rhythm, and our sleep/wake cycle continues to be inconsistent.
Sleeping in late can hurt our sleep cycle. We are shifting our circadian rhythm later, making it more difficult for us to fall asleep that next night. When we sleep in, we are less likely to fall asleep and stay asleep at our planned bedtime for the next night. This is like how overeating at one meal can make us less hungry at our next meal.
Stop eating large meals 3 hours before bedtime
This allows time for digestion to occur before you sleep and prevent you from waking in the night or going into a lighter sleep. The slow-release carbohydrates and sugars often put us into a lighter sleep and stop us from entering a deeper restorative sleep.
Digesting large meals also expends energy, preventing us from going into a deeper sleep. If you're hungry before bed, choose a light snack instead.
Limit screen time before bedtime
Make your bedroom a place just for sleeping or sex. These then become triggers for falling asleep faster. Just as you may associate the kitchen or table where you eat with hunger, this guideline will help your body re-learn to associate sleep with your bed and bedroom. Follow this rule both during the day and at night.
Avoid doing other activities in your bed or bedroom such as watching television, using your phone, tablet or computer. Blue light which is found in electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers and tablets can reduce the natural production of melatonin which can subsequently delay a person from feeling sleepy.
As well as limiting use of devices, if you do use them in the evening, dim the light as much as possible or use night-time mode / turn on blue light filter which some modern electronics have available to use.