5 Steps To Better Sleep In 2025 (& What To Do When You Can’t Sleep!)
When it comes to optimising our health, one resounding, non-negotiable, big, fat YES, is getting good sleep! Especially at this time of year when the days are short, the evenings are dark and nature is still in deep hibernation - what better time to crawl under the duvet and restore our energy.
Despite the praise sleep gets in the press and the endless health benefits it offers, so many of us struggle to get a decent nights sleep. Even if you are hitting the recommended 7-9 hours, it is the quality of deep sleep that counts, not necessarily the quantity. If you find yourself frequently waking throughout the night, or you don’t feel refreshed after 8 hours sleep, chances are you aren’t getting enough deep sleep.
There are many causes for lack of deep sleep, from sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and chronic insomnia to consuming too much caffeine during the day or not unwinding before bed. Like all aspects of wellness, sleep is individual and with more and more people investing in technology, like watches and mattresses with inbuilt sensors to measure sleep quality, one of the easiest (and more affordable) ways to understand the quality of your sleep is to ask yourself how rested you feel when you wake up.
If, like many, you aren’t reaching the sleep sweet spot, here are some useful, sleep expert recommended, tips to try.
Ditch the afternoon ‘pick-me-up’ coffee. Drinking caffeine after 12pm, like black tea and coffee, can significantly reduce the quality of your deep sleep.
Catch the rays first thing in the morning. Getting sunlight (or daylight in the gloomy months) directly in your eyes within an hour of waking up helps reset your body’s sleep clock and makes you feel sleepy by bedtime.
Treat yourself to a warm bath. Apart from helping you unwind and literally wash away the day, there is actually a clever science to this one. When you get out of a warm bath, your body’s core temp plummets, which helps you to fall and stay asleep.
Grab a good book an hour before sleep. Swapping the late-night instagram scroll or Netflix binge for a easy-going book or magazine, helps reduce your exposure to blue light emitted from screens and benefits the body’s melatonin production, as well as the nervous system!
Wind it down. Life can be busy. If we are running around all day until the minute we fall into bed and switch off the light, the likelihood of us getting good quality sleep is slim. Instead spend at least an hour, at the end of the day, doing something that brings you joy. Restorative yoga, meditation, cooking, laughing and drawing are on our agenda.
Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we just can’t sleep. We have all been there, tossing and turning, counting down the hours (or minutes!) until we need to get up and in a delirious, desperate attempt resulting to reaching for our phones and googling ‘how to sleep’. The stress is real and the worry and panic of not being able to sleep can actually make you feel worse than the lack of sleep! Instead of freaking out, try these steps instead.
Get out of bed. Go and make a cup of herbal tea or read a book in a different room for 30 minutes or until you feel tired.
27 breaths. A useful way to slow down the brain and drift off is to count your breaths down from 27. Breathe normally and every time your mind wanders or you lose count, start back at 27. Likely, you won’t get to 10 before you…. Zzzzz.
Don’t skip the alarm! While it is tempting to sleep in, this will further interfere with your inner sleep clock. Instead, stick to your routine, unwind and go to bed at the normal time the next night.