Ways to Get the Gift of Quality Sleep
Sleeping in a quiet, dark, and cool environment for the right amount of hours are only a few factors that impact the quality of my sleep.
Below are some links to more details, including resources:
I’ve always wanted more sleep, but who doesn’t?
My Story
As I was browsing through the blog posts and podcasts on the Wellness Mama website, I came across an episode, 58: How Knowing Your Chronotype Can Improve Your Sleep. After taking an online quiz referenced in the show to find out my chronotype, I found out that I was a bear. For more details about how I could improve my sleep as a bear, I read a book by a sleep doctor, also mentioned on the podcast.
After reading The Power of When by Michael Breus, PhD, a sleep doctor, I started changing my sleep routine. Before, I was just implementing steps that I thought would contribute to a good night’s sleep, but by making just a few adjustments, I’m now more rested.
Baseline
Prior to my changes, I tried to keep my bedroom quiet, dark, and cool. In addition, my goal was to sleep at least 7.5 hours per night on average each week.
Quietness
Keeping the room quiet was the item that I had least control over when living with and around other people. There were many ways to keep the noise to a minimum in the bedroom, as provided in the article, How to train yourself to sleep in noisy environments, on Tuck’s website. However, I chose generally to ask the people at home to be quiet. In addition, I focused on areas aside from noise to promote sleep as well.
Darkness
To keep my view in the bedroom as dark as possible, I did the following:
- Slept in a position where I couldn’t see the smoke detector light
- Turned the blinds so the cracks opened away from me
- Partially closed the closet door to block the lights from the electronic equipment
- Closed the bedroom door so I couldn’t see the lights from the bathroom, kitchen, etc.
For additional ideas on removing light from your sleeping area, check out the article, How To Make Your Room Dark, from SleepFoundation.org.
Coolness
To maintain a cool room, I opened the balcony door for a little while to bring in cool air before going to sleep when the bedroom was warm or stuffy. This was one of the ideas that I used from the article, The Best Temperature for Sleep, from SleepFoundation.org. With a cool room and even the addition of a light or medium comforter, I would usually not wake up in the middle of my sleep from being overly warm or hot.
Time
In terms of the amount of sleep, 6.5 hours would get me through the next day with lots of yawning. 7 hours would be okay and 8 or 8.5 hours would be good or too much, depending on how much I had slept during the week. Based on how I felt, I aimed for the 7.5 hours per night and tried to make up for missing sleep during the rest of the week. Still, it wasn’t perfect since I didn’t feel consistently rested.
Reassessment
In addition to having a quiet, dark, and cool bedroom, I learned from The Power of When to include the following in my sleep routine:
- Do calming activities during the hour before sleeping
- Go to sleep at the same time each night for the same amount of time
- Gently transition from sleeping to rising
Calmness
To calm myself each night right before going to bed, I continued to take a warm shower. In addition, I started reading about fun topics, e.g., fictional novels.
Time
For consistency, I started sleeping between 11 pm and 11:45 pm until 7 am to 7:45 am, targeting for 8 hours of sleep each night, which has helped me feel regularly rested. If I was not able to sleep by the set bedtime, I still woke up by 7:45 am and slept by 11:45 pm the next day, if possible.
Previously, delaying my sleep and/or wake times on the weekends would cause me difficulty in falling asleep on Sunday nights. Now with maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, I have fewer drowsy Mondays!
Gentle Rise
As for my alarm clock, I have replaced it with gentler music, so I no longer wake up to shocking beeps. At first I was concerned that I would sleep through the music, but that thought proved to be untrue!
With my old alarm clock, I would snooze up to three times, knowing that the alarm would turn off after that. With the new alarm, I would snooze at the most once. To train my body further to sleep within my sleep schedule, I will try to break the habit by doing the following:
Continuous Improvement
- Get up and out of bed when the alarm goes off.
In searching for ways to improve my sleep, I have learned the following:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- The solution to an issue may not be in the immediate surrounding, so I might need to explore further away from the symptom and look more holistically through potentially intertwined areas to fix.
What will you do next?
Next Step for You
- Explore SleepFoundation.org for more ideas to get better sleep?
- Read The Power of When by Michael Breus, PhD, to figure out the best time to sleep?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)