Better Sleep
Staff often lead busy and demanding lives, and getting enough good quality sleep is essential to functioning personally and professionally.
Some facts about sleep:
- The average amount of sleep a person needs each day is about 8 hours
- If you are regularly getting less than 8 hours sleep, it is likely that you are mentally under functioning
- Good rest is almost as good as sleep
- Sleep comes in waves and like a surfer you need to know when the waves occur and to catch them at the right time
- You won’t go crazy if you miss a night or two of sleep.
Here are some suggestions:
- Go to bed when you are sleepy: Many people make a decision to go to bed after hours of activity without thinking about their body’s needs. Sometimes if you try to go to sleep your mind can be over stimulated and not be ready for sleep.
- Sign off the work you have been doing – tick off tasks completed, make a list of things to do tomorrow, put this in a special place, tidy your desk a little, shut down your computer.
- Wind down – have a cup of warm milk or herbal tea, read a restful book or magazine, listen to quiet music, have a shower. Do all this calmly.
- Prepare your bed for sleep – make sure it is comfortable and a good place to sleep.
- Avoid big meals and stimulants like tea, coffee, alcohol, energy drinks or cigarettes within to 2 hours of going to bed.
- Make your bed a place of rest and relaxation:
It is advised that you don’t read or listen to music or watch tv in bed before you go to sleep. If you read in bed, put down the book when you feel sleepy, do not wait until you have read to the end of the chapter. It is NOT a good idea to work in bed. Your bed needs to be a place of rest and relaxation. - Get up if you are still awake and restless after half an hour:
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- Do something quiet like read a magazine, have a cup of warm milk or
- Avoid high-energy activities and stimulants.
- Go back to bed when you are feeling sleepy and try to go to sleep
again. - Don’t worry if you’re not sleepy – more sleep is lost through worrying. Only prolonged sleep disturbance is unhealthy. However if you are lying in bed feeling relaxed and are OK about this, then stay in bed as long as this feeling remains. You will fall asleep. Remember you want to associate your bed with rest and sleep.
- Try the tips in 2 & 3 if you wake during the night and can’t goback to sleep. Don’t be tempted to get up and do anything too exciting.
- Do some exercise during the day every day, but never late at night. Choose something you enjoy and exercise with a friend to maintain enthusiasm on a regular basis, three or more times per week.
- Do some relaxation before bed: Use mental imagery to put yourself in a relaxing, safe place e.g. on a beach, watching a river - what do you see, hear, feel, smell? Do some gentle breathing exercises, yoga or meditation.
- Think about your physical environment: Is your bedroom a place you like to be? To sleep in? Make changes to the room that will help like adjust the lighting, change the bed covers, pillow, reduce or remove other interrupting sounds like TV or radio, close doors.
- Get help if you’ve got worries/things on your mind. Talk to someone about it.