Taking Care of Your Sleep – Practical Tips and Tricks

Taking Care of Your Sleep - Practical Tips and Tricks

Kyrie Hemingson

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

Despite the average person spending roughly one-third of their life sleeping, restful sleep is often an overlooked aspect of health. From racing thoughts at bedtime, to tossing and turning throughout the night, many people struggle to get the rest they need.

What is Sleep?

Sleep is a vital process that gives both our body and brain a chance to rest and recover. It’s characterized by reduced consciousness, decreased muscle activity, and a lower metabolic rate. Sleep also gives the body the chance to perform essential functions such as tissue repair, memory consolidation, and energy restoration alongside forming and maintaining brain pathways so that we can concentrate and learn during the day. As you can already see, there are many physical and mental reasons that a good night’s sleep is important!

Sleep Influences

Factors that affect the quality and quantity of your sleep tend to fall into three main categories:

  1. Environmental Factors such as the amount of light exposure, noise levels, and things like the temperature, humidity, air quality and general comfort of your room
  2. Lifestyle Factors like your daily exercise and physical activity levels, your diet and hydration (including when and what you are eating); as well as work and social life factors
  3. Other Factors including biological factors (genetics, hormones, age, etc.), psychological factors (stress levels, trauma, mental illness, etc.), and medical conditions (lchronic illness, medications, etc.)

Practical Tips & Tricks

Below, you’ll find some of recommendations and tips that can help you improve the quality and quantity of your sleep.

1. Create a Sleep-Conducive, Comfortable Environment

As mentioned, environmental factors can have a big impact on our sleep. It can be invaluable to transform your sleep space into a comfortable environment to help you sleep better. Consider a few different things:

  • Light exposure – having a dark sleep setting, whether through curtains or an eye mask, will tell your body it is time to release melatonin (a sleep hormone).
  • Noise levels – some people prefer sleeping in silence, potentially using ear plugs, while others prefer background noise like music, podcasts, or white noise to name a few—consider what may work best for you!
  • Temperature, humidity, air quality – many people find a slightly cooler temperature easier to sleep. Consider scheduling your thermostat so the heat goes down at night or using a fan. Humidifiers, or conversely dehumidifiers as well as air purifiers can also be handy in regulating your sleep space.
  • General Comfort – make sure your sleep space is a comfortable environment that ushers in rest! Consider if your bedding, pillow, and mattress are comfy. Consider if there are any distractors in your room such as electronics as well.
  • The five senses – in addition to light, noise, and touch, if there are any tastes in your mouth that may hinder your ability to fall asleep, try to remove them. Additionally, if there are smells in your room distracting you from sleep it can be helpful to address them.

2. Develop a Routine

A common tip you’ll often see if you search “how to sleep better”, is developing a sleep routine. Doing this and then integrating it into your daily schedule will lead to more consistent, and better quality sleep. It’s recommended to maintain a regular sleep and wake time, so consider developing a morning routine as well!

When creating a sleep routine, first make sure it is individualized to what works for you. What works for one person may not work for teveryone so take some time to figure out what works best for you. Here are some general tips to can consider when creating a sleep routine:

  • Decide on a bedtime for yourself and stick to this as best you can – having a mindset of intentionality and purposefully having made a decision of when you are going to sleep will help you be more likely to stick with it.
  • Put electronics away – it’s recommended that one to two hours before we sleep we begin to slow down and disengage from the day’s activities, including putting our electronics away or at the very least turning a bluelight filter on. For more on technology and sleep check out our blog post Your Circadian Rhythm and Technology.
  • Prepare your space – physically make sure your sleep environment is sleep conducive. Mentally prepare your mind for rest through things that help relax you, such as meditating, reading, taking a hot bath or shower, listening to calm music, etc. See more on relaxation exercises below.
  • Get ready for the next day – consider creating a to-do list as a way to help your mind find rest instead of thinking about the tasks you want to accomplish the next day. This “worry time” can help you feel like you have thought about tomorrow and can now rest for the night.

There are many benefits to trying to maintain consistency such as regulating your circadian rhythm, improving your sleep quality and sleep duration, as well as enhancing your daytime wakefulness, to name a few things. Be gentle with yourself if you are not able to follow your routine due to things coming up for you. If this happens repeatedly, consider adjusting what your sleep routine looks like and/or setting boundaries so that you are better able to follow it.

If you aren’t quite sure where to start, consider keeping a weekly sleep log to see where you are currently at and how you can begin to create a routine you would like, slowly bridging the gap between present and ideal.

For more things you can potentially integrate into your bedtime routine, check out this link. Additionally, for morning routine ideas and tips, check out this link.

3. Try Relaxation Exercises

Relaxation exercises can help prepare both body and mind for sleep. They can also help if you are ever having trouble falling asleep. There are many different relaxation techniques out there so try out a few and see what works best for you. Below are some types of relaxation exercises and examples of them:

Breathing Exercises

Taking slow, deep breaths is one of the easiest ways to engage our body’s parasympathetic nervous system which will physiologically help calm your body and mind. An example of a breathing exercise is diaphragmatic or belly breathing. While lying down or sitting, place one hand on your upper chest (heart center) and the other at the top of your belly, right below your rib cage as that’s where your diaphragm is. Then breathe in deeply through your nose so that your belly pushes against your bottom hand. The hand at your chest should remain as still as possible as if it moves that shows you’re breathing through your shoulders and not your belly. Then, push the air out of your mouth. You can repeat this process for as long as you need, finding a comfortable pattern of in and out breaths. Take deep breaths, drawing your attention to the way the hand on your belly moves out as you breathe in.

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Visualization Exercises

Another great relaxation tool, are visualization techniques. These techniques utilize mental images you can create in your mind to create a sense of well-being in your body. For example, body scans are a type of meditation that require us to focus our attention on the different parts of our bodies. Start by laying in a comfortable position and take a few deep breaths to get your body into a relaxed state. For body scans you’ll work your way up your body, beginning by bringing your attention to your feet. Notice if there are any sensations in your toes and the soles of your feet, as well as if you’re holding any tension here. If there is any discomfort, acknowledge it and then try to let go of it. This is where the visualization comes in. Visualize the tightness leaving that part of your body while you breathe out. Once you’re ready, you move your focus up to your calf muscles, then your knees, and so forth repeating the process of noticing sensations and visualizing the tension leaving through your breath. You want to do this with intention, taking your time to move up your body all the way to your forehead so your entire body has been “scanned” for tension.

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Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Similar to body scans but now involving the body physically releasing tension, you can try progressive muscle relaxation. In this exercise, start from the bottom of your body and then move up just like with body scanning. However, this time, breathe in and physically tense the body part you’re focused on for 5-10 seconds. Tensing the muscle or body part you’re focused on involves purposely focusing tension into that area of the body. Then, after holding this tension for a brief period of time, breathe out and relax those muscles. After, try to stay relaxed for about 10-20 seconds, taking deep breaths, before you move to the next muscle group. Like a body scan you will finish by tensing the top of your body.

For more on how you can tense your muscles, check out this link.  

For more relaxation exercises, consider using an app such as Calm or Headspace for meditation and mindfulness. In addition to this, for more information on apps that can help you in your mental health journey, check out Digital Health Apps we love at McKinney Psychology.

4. Regularly Practice Self-Care

Self-care is the practice of taking care of yourself so that you can improve your own health, well-being, and happiness. It’s not selfish to take care of yourself! In nurturing yourself, make sure you’re honouring your mind, body, and spirit. Regularly practicing self-care can lead to lower stress levels and more mental calmness that pours into the physical body and in turn can support our sleep. Additionally, regular self-care can limit mental tiredness, helping us feel rested mentally as well.

We can divide self-care into 4 subcategories with those being physical, emotional, social, and spiritual.

  • Physical self-care can look like working out, sleeping, eating healthy and more. 
  • Emotional self-care includes things like journalling, crying, talking, etc.—anything that’s going to help you let out any feelings that have been building up, including stress
  • Social self-care includes things like spending time with family and friends, volunteering, or other activities that help you feel connected to and supported by others
  • Spiritual self-care is practices that help a person feel connected to, and have a sense of belonging in the world

Consider reflecting on your self-care practices while also brainstorming new ideas you could use through using a Self-Care Wheel exercise from the University of Alberta Student Union’s Peer Support Centre or trying out a 30 day schedule of self-care ideas. If some of the things in the schedule don’t sound restful to you, try and create your own self-care calendar! For more ideas, consider checking out our blog post Self-Care: What is it and Ideas of How You Can Start Practicing It Today

5. Limit Non-Sleeping Time in Bed

Other than sexual intimacy, avoid doing other things in your bed. This includes avoiding:

  • Doing work/studying in bed
  • Watching tv in bed
  • Eating in bed
  • Going on your phone in bed

The reason avoiding doing things other than sleeping in your bed can help you sleep is because you can train your body to associate your bed with only sleep. If you’re doing other things in bed, your body may view your bed as a place to stimulate your brain instead. For example, if you watch study in bed you may find it harder to sleep, or, if your body does associate your bed with sleep, you might fall asleep while studying because getting into bed lets your body know it’s time to sleep. 

In short, it ends up being harder to fall asleep if you do other things in bed because your body will not link sleep with your bed.

6. Limit Naps

Naps can help us feel rested, reduce sleepiness, and quickly recharge us. For example, if you are driving and find you are sleepy, it’s actually recommended that you pull off into a safe spot and take a quick nap. So while napping isn’t necessarily bad for you, there are a few things you can do to make sure your naps are serving you and not going to make it harder for you to fall asleep or stay asleep at nighttime, such as making sure naps are before 3 or 4pm. Naps after these times can often cause us to have a harder time falling and staying asleep later in the night.

Additionally, if you are going to nap, 30 minutes or less seems to be the magic number for helping people feel rested instead of groggy after a nap. Or, if you’re wanting a longer nap, 90 minutes also seems like a beneficial nap duration because it’s a full sleep cycle. For more information on sleep cycles, check out our blog post Your Circadian Rhythm and Technology

What to do When Lying Awake in Bed

If you find yourself laying awake for at least ~20-30 minutes in bed after genuinely trying to sleep (not checking your phone every few minutes!), it’s recommended that you get out of bed and go to another part of the house. As discussed in limiting non-sleeping time in bed, this will help avoid your bed becoming associated with wakefulness

While you are now out of bed, try something that will put your mind at rest. This can be previously described relaxation techniques as well as making sure there isn’t something physical keeping you awake such as needing to use to bathroom or hunger. Try your best to avoid reaching for your phone as the bright light may negatively effect your ability to sleep.

If laying awake becomes a recurrent issue, try going to bed an hour or two later for a few weeks. Once your sleep is consolidated, then you can gradually move your bedtime up 30 minutes per week until you are getting enough sleep to feel fully rested all day. Sometimes a reset is needed so that things can get better.

Additional Resources

Websites:

Books

Blog post adapted from the McKinney Psychology presentation Taking Care of Your Sleep: Practical Tips & Tricks as part of our Path to Wellness Series. For more information, please contact our office.