How to encourage a better nights sleep
A good nights sleep doesn’t necessarily mean a lot of sleep but more of the right kind of sleep - think quality over quantity.
Sleep impacts how we use language, sustain attention, understand what we are reading, and summarise what we are hearing. Some of us have real trouble sleeping or simply don't understand the importance of its role in protecting your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.
Where do I start?
Firstly, we need to figure out what is effecting our sleep before we can effectively seek out a solution. There are lots of ways of adapting your bed time routine to suit your specific needs, but then most importantly sticking to that routine. An adult male or female is recommended by health experts to have 7-9 hours sleep a night. Once you have a nightly goal based on the hours of sleep that you need, it’s time to start planning for how to make that a reality. This is done by making sleep our priority, rather than letting work or social activities interfere. As easy as it is to say in the moment that it won’t hurt to cut into those sleeping hours, we know that it will have a massive impact on us the following day and the ability to work or socialise.
A routine is the starting point from setting a bedtime as well as removing possible distractions and creating the best possible sleeping environment (reduce light exposure, declutter the sleep space and get rid of electronic devices).
Some of the advice may differ for those who are suffering with existing health conditions, chronic insomnia or mental health struggles. If you fall under any of those categories, please do contact a health professional before implementing these changes to your sleep routine.
How practicing being more mindful can help improve the quality of our sleep
Rest is vital to our wellbeing, but we're losing touch with the simple brilliance of just being. We're surrounded by pressures from work, family, study and social media. Even in our downtime, we're losing the ability to truly switch off and relax.
'Yoga Nidra', which is seen as the state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, is one of many ways of using mindfulness to help the body relax. The brilliant thing about Yoga Nidra is that you can participate at any level, with no previous experience in any meditation practices and immerse yourself as you are guided by your instructor to the exact state of rest you are searching for.
There are indeed many more mindfulness practices for you to explore, but do please make sure to look into your day to day life and find which practice works best for you. Mindfulness is a quality somewhat overlooked and simply by becoming a little more connected to your mind and body you will be conditioned to rest when it's called upon.
