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We’ve all been there. You finish an exhausting day, throw yourself into bed ready for a blissful, deep sleep, only for your brain to be like time to remember that weird thing you said to your boss 3 ½ weeks ago!
Maybe it’s not obsessing over insignificant-yet-mortifying moments from the past. Maybe you get into bed and your mind is whizzing between the latest global crisis, what your teen celebrity crush looks like now, and all the outstanding tasks on your to-do list. Our brains just love to go into overdrive at night, don’t they? Actually, we know they do — in Koala’s 2021 Calm As Sleep Survey, they found that on average, Aussies are losing around 5.57 hours of sleep per week!
Today is World Sleep Day, so there’s honestly no better time to have a look at your snoozing routine — because yep, how you prepare for sleep definitely impacts the bit where your eyes are shut. The good news? Improving your sleep doesn’t have to involve draining your bank account on 55 lavender-scented candles and celebrity-endorsed sleep tea or anything.
Below are our best (heaps easy) tips for getting to sleep faster, and waking up fresher.
Make Your Bedroom a Dedicated Space
We usually style up our bedrooms to make them an oasis from the stress of the world, but loads of us don’t really honour that, huh? From working from home (but, really, from the bed) to bingeing Netflix, we kind of treat our bed like it’s a second lounge room.
Instead, keep the bedroom off-limits when it comes to work, doom-scrolling on your phone, and TV. You’ll wind down faster, and get to sleep more smoothly. Want to go the extra mile? Pick up a sleep mist or make your own with lavender, ylang ylang, chamomile and sandalwood essential oils. Spritz on your pillow or use a diffuser to scent your room before bedtime. Bonus? You’ll feel like you’re in a hotel.
If You Can’t Sleep, Get Up
Seems counter-intuitive but it’s actually better to get up if you can’t fall asleep, at least after around twenty minutes, according to The Sleep Health Foundation. However, this isn’t your free pass to check on what your ex has been up to on Instagram. Just head to a different dark, quiet space and sit quietly until you feel sleepy again. Too intense for you? If you have to do something, try reading a book or magazine.
Avoid Your Phone Before Bed
Yes, yes – we all know we should avoid screens before going to sleep. But if you just can’t completely get away from them, at least put limits on yourself. For example, don’t doom-scroll while lying in bed in the dark. Don’t choose 8pm as the hour you’ll dedicate to catching up on the (often really depressing) news cycle. These activities will just set your mind running again, which is exactly what you’re trying not to do before shut-eye.
Ideally, keep your phone on airplane mode for an hour before bed. But if you can’t, make a pact to check the news in the morning, not at night, and to stay off apps that get you mindlessly scrolling for hours.
Go for Max Comfort
According to Koala’s survey, 60% of you love to sleep in your pjs, but is everything else about your bedroom at maximum comfort levels? Let’s assume you’ve got a good mattress, but have a think about when you last replaced your pillows (the Sleep Foundation suggests every one to two years), and whether the materials you sleep in are breathable. Koala’s TENCEL linen is made of sustainably-sourced wood and is more absorbent than cotton, and is incredibly cool to sleep in. More into the snuggly feel of French linen? Their Le Linen sheets are for you. As for pyjamas, make sure yours are made of breathable materials, too. And with the brand’s Afterpay Day Sale, get 20% off their best-selling mattresses and furniture, plus 15% off the rest.
Meditate, But the Way It Works for You
As Headspace explains it, “meditation helps lower the heart rate by igniting the parasympathetic nervous system and encouraging slower breathing, thereby increasing the prospect of a quality night’s sleep.” But there are plenty of different forms of meditation that don’t, for example, mean you have to sit rigid on your bed for thirty minutes trying to clear your head.
There are plenty of guided sleep meditations in the form of podcasts and apps, but even some good-old counting sheep is a form of meditation — it makes you focus your mind on one task, which slows down your mind so you ease into sleep.
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