Have you ever noticed that when you feel tired everything you try to achieve feels harder?
I thought I understood fatigue pretty well and then our kids moved in.
Sleep deprevation over months and years rather than a weekend party jet lag hit me on a different level.
Simple things like avoiding the sweet drawer or
biscuit tin are harder when you feel drained.
The motivation to exercise can be nonexistent.
Both can be combatted with discipline, yet discipline makes itself scarce when your eyelids feel heavy.
The key to improving sleep?
Our old friend consistency.
Start by going to bed at the same time every night and ideally getting up at the same time every morning.
When you have that working 80% of the time, you will feel so much more rested.
Trying to be a grown up and staying up late doesn’t really do us any favours on a rest and recovery front.
I train jiu jitsu two nights per week so have set my sleep schedule around the time I know I can get to bed by on those nights. The late activity and somebody trying to fold my clothes while I’m in them does make sleep
a little more difficult on those nights but I still get in to bed.
Not eating within a few hours of going to sleep is worth it too, trying to sleep while you’re still digesting doesn’t help sleep quality.
Not using your phone for an hour pre bed can help, although I personally haven’t noticed a difference on sleep quality with this one. Maybe, it’s not so much the blue light from a phone but the emotion of the content being consumed
that affects sleep. Probably a combination of both.
Getting some early outdoor daylight, not direct sun, a little 5 minute walk around the block can really help reset your system for a good nights sleep.
As you can imagine, there are limitless sleep hacks on the internet, hit the four basics above consistently and you’ll notice a big difference in a couple of weeks to your general feeling of oommpphhhh.
Darren
“snoozy” Checkley