A study conducted last summer suggested that over half of the UK population had struggled with their sleep since the pandemic began. But just why is that? And more importantly, what can you do to snooze more soundly? Luckily, as with all health and wellbeing challenges, there’s plenty you can do to take back control and improve your sleep-wake balance.
Let’s take a look at the big problems and some powerful tools to help you overcome them.
Increased stress and anxiety
The last year has give us all sorts of things to be stressed or anxious about, and that can lead to difficulty sleeping, and poor quality sleep. You may get the hours you need, but still wake feeling groggy or unrefreshed.
Stress increases the activity of your Sympathetic Nervous System - the one responsible for speeding you up by increasing levels of hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These are useful when you need to get things done during daylight hours, but not so helpful when you’re trying to switch off and fall asleep at night.
What can you do about it?
There’s no single solution for reducing stress and anxiety, and improving sleep, but here are my top 3 tips you can try:
1) Get help. Above all else, if you’re struggling, speak to your GP or get in touch with a counsellor to talk through your problems. It’s ok not to be ok.
2) Write down your troubles before bedtime. It helps to get your anxieties out of your head. You can then give yourself permission not to worry about things overnight, as they’re down on paper and you can look to start addressing them tomorrow.
3) Try breathing techniques or meditation. You can use apps like Headpsace, listen to the sounds of nature, or have a go at this simple breathing technique:
Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds
Hold your breath for 7 seconds
Exhale through pursed lips (making a whooshing noise like the wind) for 8 seconds.
Repeat 4 times.
Funnily enough, it’s called the 4-7-8 technique and was invented by Dr Andrew Weil.
2.More time indoors
We’ve all been cooped up a lot more than we’re used to - adults and children alike. And that’s not good for our sleep. In fact, The Sleep Foundation says that exposure to light is the most important external factor affecting your sleep. In the daytime, you need to be exposed to the bright light of the sun. Even if you are sat by a window or in a car, it’s just not a s good. It’s that direct exposure to daylight, and then the subsequent lack of light after dark, that helps your body to fine-tune your Circadian Rhythm - your body clock. In one scientific study, it was shown that office workers who were exposed to more natural light during the day, had 46 minutes more sleep than those who weren’t.
What can you do about it?
It seems that the very best thing you can do is to get outside early in the morning for at least 30 minutes of exposure to direct sunlight. That’s awesome news, as you can coincide it with your daily exercise and get a double-whammy of benefits!!!
And hey, if your daily schedule doesn’t allow for early exercise, just get out at some point during the day - go for a walk, take the dog out, do some gardening, do your stretching or strength exercises, have a ‘walking meeting’ on Skype, or anything else that gets you out the front door.
3. Increased screen time
Whilst natural light is wonderful for your sleep, the bright lights of laptops, tablets, and phones can wreak havoc on your body clock. Your brain interprets the bright light as coming from the only natural source of light it knows - the big ball in the sky. As it thinks it’s daytime, it starts sending out signals to boost the levels of ‘action’ hormones like adrenaline. If you stay on your screens too long past nightfall, your sleep can be significantly delayed.
What can you do about it?
1) Switch off in the evenings. Finish work on time, put your screens to one side, and use the evenings to spend time with your loved ones, talk to friends and family on the phone, read a book, or enjoy your hobbies.
2) Set your screens to night-time mode. Even just a little less bright light can make a difference,
3) Stop watching TV at least an hour before bed. Whilst the tele isn’t quite as bright as many modern devices, any form of light can have an impact on your sleep cycles.
4. The loss of daily routines
We are creatures of habit. We like to get up at the same time each day, and go to bed at the same time each night. As I’ve already mentioned, we’re ruled by an internal body clock. But in our weird world, many of us don’t have the need to get up and get out of the house like we once did, or to go to bed early knowing we’d have to do it all over again tomorrow. Whilst we’ve probably enjoyed this new-found freedom, it’s thrown us out of sync.
What can you do about it?
If you want to help your night-time rest, one of the best things you can do is to set yourself times for going to bed and rising. They don’t have to be as extreme as they used to be - you can still enjoy a few extra minutes if you know you don’t have to sit in traffic, but be rigorous with it. Get yourself into a routine, and your body will thanks for it.
Summary
It’s a strange time. Be kind to yourself, but remember that you can take control. Pick just one habit to work on, and focus on making it a lasting change rather than worrying about the impact it has in the first few days or weeks. Once it’s embedded into your daily life, work on another, and keep collecting good habits until you find that, more often than not, you’re sleeping like a baby.
