As the glorious days of summer bring longer daylight, this also means it may be more difficult to follow your same sleeping patterns. The sun comes up earlier in the morning and stays up later into the evening; although this is one of the great benefits of summertime, it may cause us to wake up earlier and go to bed later. There are many other factors that affect our quality of sleep, which include our habits, stress, environment, diet, activity, sleeping situation, etc. We may not even realize it, but if you are feeling more tired or drowsy than usual, your sleep is worth assessing.
I recently attended a healthy sleep workshop here at the DAHLC. For a long time now, I have struggled getting to sleep and then staying asleep through the night. My primary reasons among many were having a cluttered mind and having a baby waking in the night. While I couldn't ignore my baby, I could change the cluttered mind situation. Attending the sleep workshop not only helped me pinpoint some of the factors hindering my sleep, but it also helped me evaluate the conditions I could change and how to practically do it. I also appreciated that I was encouraged to choose one factor at a time to change and see how that helps, rather than trying to change multiple factors at once. Because I struggle with having too many thoughts buzzing around in my head when I go to bed, the wellness coach and I discussed having a list by my bedside to write down my thoughts or the things I was needing to get done the next day. That way, I was physically writing them down and, therefore, letting them go for the time being. This is merely one example of a positive change that I made for my bedtime routine. It has only been a month now, and I'm well on my way to a better night's sleep.
Here are some expert tips to evaluate for your best night's sleep:
Tags: healthy sleep, sleep well, Uncategorized