Learn about things you can do and things you shouldn’t do to improve your sleep and well-being.
- Avoid stimulants like caffeine past noon.
- Avoid taking naps – but if you must, take a short nap early in the day.
- Give yourself time to unwind. Don’t go straight to bed after completing a physically or emotionally draining task.
- Keep a sleep diary to determine how many hours of sleep you actually need each night – not everyone needs 8 hours of sleep.
- Set a routine bedtime and wake up time – if you need 7 hours of sleep, go to bed 7 hours before you need to wake up.
- Keep the bedroom for sleeping – don’t watch TV or scroll on your phone. If you aren’t asleep within 20 minutes, go to another room and read something boring, meditate, or practice mindful breathing.
- Try this simple 4-4-4 breathing exercise: Inhale through your nose to a mental count of 4. Hold your breath for a count of 4. Exhale completely through your mouth for a count of 4. Repeat.
- Quiet your mind – listen to something soothing like white noise or a calming podcast. There is a variety of relaxing YouTube videos featuring things like rainfalls and ocean waves.
- Quiet your body – close your eyes and focus on relaxing each muscle group for 3-6 seconds. Start at your toes, knees, thighs, glutes, abdomen, chest, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, jaw, and forehead. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth the whole time.
- Distract your brain with another train of thought. For example: choose a short word (e.g., bench). For each letter, come up with five words that start with that letter (e.g., 5 b words, then 5 e words, and so on). Repeat until you fall asleep.
Source: Sleepwell, which is led by Dr. David Gardner and Andrea Murphy. Dr. Gardner is a Pharmacist and Professor with the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University in Halifax. To learn more, visit mysleepwell.ca
