In the northern hemisphere we are still in the darkest days of the year. The shadows are long, the temperatures chilly, and the pull to rest and sleep is strong.

So, why not use this time of year to work on your sleep hygiene?

What’s that, you ask?

Sleep hygiene is a set of healthy habits and environmental factors that can help you sleep better.

Poor sleep hygiene can lead to poor sleep quality and duration, which can in turn deeply impact your mental, emotional, physical and hormonal health.

Our modern lives have deeply disrupted the sleep hygiene that was once so natural to us. Insomnia and poor sleep quality have become the norm – and all of the health issues related to poor sleep, as well.

So, we have to be more intentional than ever before about protecting our sleep, and holding it as the sacred, restorative, curative that it is.

 

Learning to …

🌙 Create a routine at bedtime

🌙 Avoid stimulants of all kinds & alcohol 4-6 hours before going to bed

🌙 Make your bedroom an optimal sleeping space

🌙 Find the right ways to wind down at the end of the day for you

🌙 Eat early enough in the day to avoid going to bed full

🌙 Cultivate healthy daytime habits to support your body’s circadian rhythm

🌙 Support any sleeping problems you currently have

 

Will all improve both the quality and quantity of sleep you get every night.

You might look at the list above and feel like you have to change everything stat! I know what it feels like to be egregiously sleep deprived. I would have done anything to get better sleep!

But the key to making changes that last is to always make gradual adjustments.

Pick just one idea from the list above. It’s normal to spend a week or more making changes to that one thing. Once you have that one thing in a better feeling place, consider moving on to another thing from the list.

Baby steps, taken over time, will yield the most powerful and lasting results for you. When you make small changes over time, you create a new normal for yourself as you go. This way nothing feels like too big of a leap, too great of a change, too disruptive to your usual routine.

Easy does it – AND, getting better sleep is so worth it!

If you’d like support in establishing better sleep hygiene for yourself, reach out to me for a FREE call and we’ll discuss the practices that can improve your quality of sleep best.