In part one of this blog series, I talked about a long list of free and accessible tools that we have at our disposal to support better sleep and mood. This list included: getting into nature, getting off electronics, human connection, movement, food/nutrition, sleep hygiene and siesta time/taking breaks. I spent the majority of that blog talking about “getting off electronics and getting into nature,” as they are both so important, and—similarly, for this blog, I wish to focus in on sleep hygiene.
Without enough or good sleep, our body, mind and spirit suffer on all levels, and we are not able to operate well or enjoy life the way we would like to. A lack of sleep or poor sleep all by itself can lead to anxiety, depression, fatigue, decreased motivation and focus—even when things are otherwise going well in life.
What is sleep hygiene?
There are many factors that contribute to good sleep hygiene: maintaining a regular sleep schedule, a nightly bedtime routine, healthy lifestyle habits, positive coping behaviors, a comfortable sleep environment—and even the activities you take part in each day. Poor sleep hygiene can negatively impact the amount and quality of sleep you get each night.
Maintain a regular sleep schedule
Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day as much as possible. Doing this will help to regulate your body’s clock and enhance the quality of your sleep and energy upon waking. In addition to going to bed at the same time every night—figure out what your optimal bedtime and wake up times are; some people are “morning people” and some people are “night owls.” As much as possible, it is best to honor this aspect of ourselves. In addition to getting enough sleep, it is important to sleep at the hours that work best for you, when possible. (Of course sometimes work and other realities of our lives prevent us from this, but, just do your best).
Bedtime Routine
Having a routine around bedtime can greatly help the process of unwinding and bringing ourselves into a parasympathetic state (relaxation!); usually starting a half hour to one hour before bedtime is sufficient, but you will figure out what works for you. Practice calming, relaxing activities before bedtime, such as:
- Listen to soothing music.
- Deep breathing and visualization of a soothing scene.
- Take a warm shower or bath about 30-60 minutes before bed.
- Reading before bed can be relaxing. However—avoid exciting/stimulating books, they might keep you up even longer!
- Reduce/avoid all screen time as much as possible one to two hours before bed—the blue light tells your brain it’s daytime, and will keep you from falling and staying asleep. But if you must be on screens, consider installing apps that have blue-light blockers, dimming the brightness on your screen, or getting blue-light blocking glasses or computer screen covers.
Sleeping environment
For optimal sleep, keep your bedroom quiet, dark and cool.
- Use curtains, shades and/or a sleep mask to block out light. Black out shades are best, especially as it gets lighter outside earlier in the morning.
- Use earplugs, a fan, soothing music, or a white noise machine if you are easily disturbed by outside noise.
- Keep your bedroom on the cooler side (between 60-67 degrees) while you sleep—you will fall asleep easier, stay asleep longer and sleep more deeply.
Calming your nervous system, and Regulating Blood Sugar
What you put in your body before bed will impact how well you sleep.
- Drink a cup of herbal (non-caffeinated) tea—Chamomile, Lavender, Tulsi, and SleepyTime tea are all great examples.
- Avoid caffeine, chocolate, sugar and alcohol—the first three will keep you up, and alcohol—while it may help you fall asleep initially—will often disturb sleep, shorten the duration of sleep, and interfere with REM sleep. It can increase, worsen or even cause insomnia.
- Have a light protein-rich snack before bed to help regulate your blood sugar levels and help you to stay asleep through the night. Examples include: a handful of almonds, nut butter on half a slice of toast, or 1-2 scrambled eggs.
We are all unique
As you can see, there are so many ways to help sleep; the above ideas are both a long list, and also just a handful of ways that sleep can be improved—and this is before we have even talked the wide range of herbs, supplements and other sleep aids that we can discuss. And of course, there are so many other factors—life brings it with it many stresses, worries, anxiety, our own personal histories. These are all things that we can work with and discuss on our healing journey together—I’m here to support you as the unique individual that you are, and am ready to hear your story.
Dr. Leber is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor (ND) in the state of Oregon and received her degree and training from the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM). She grew up in Massachusetts, and spent close to twenty years living in Boulder, Colorado before moving to Portland in 2019 to start her schooling at NUNM. Dr. Leber earned her Master’s in Education at the University of Colorado, Denver in 2015.
Prior to her journey to becoming a Naturopath, she spent many years in a wide variety of professions: social work, non-profit work, teaching (elementary school and womens/prenatal yoga), massage therapy, writer, and musician/singer. Learn more about Dr. Rachel Leber.
