Question: What is Sleep hygiene?
Answer: Practices and habits that help to promote a good nights sleep
We need to be both physically and mentally tired to get a good nights rest. Lets start with exercise, an important influence on our sleep quality. Research has shown that regular exercise can promote sleep and even reduce the severity of sleep disorders (eg sleep apnoea). It is important to exercise every day, even if you have a physically demanding job or a very busy and demanding work schedule. For those of us who are sleep deprived, exercising can be difficult to get motivated for. When you are tired the last thing you feel like doing is exercise, but this is actually the most important time to exercise. Exercise improves your sleep, helping you to feel better which makes exercising easier which in turn helps you sleep better.
For those of us who work shift work, having a cup of coffee in the afternoon may seem normal in preparation for a late night on shift. For those of us who do not work shift work, caffeine should not be consumed after lunchtime. We all react to caffeine differently and often we become used to the effects of caffeine stimulation. Even so, caffeine should be consumed as far from bed time as possible. Caffeine has a half-life of 5-6 hours, what this means is that after 5 hours of having a cup of coffee, you are still receiving half of the full effect of that coffee. So if you have a coffee, soft drink or energy drink at 2pm, it will still be affecting you at 8pm.
A lot of Australians enjoy a drink or two in the evening. While 1-2 standard drinks is ok and can provide a calming effect as a part of our evening relaxation, more than this amount can impact on your sleep. Alcohol can have a sedative effect (helps you fall asleep), but it can also impact on the quality of your sleep. Alcohol will delay and reduce the amount of your REM sleep which is the type of sleep that improves your mood, your memory and ability to learn. Alcohol will also increase the severity of sleep apnoea and other breathing disorders. Use caution when deciding whether or not to have another drink.
Tip: Expose yourself to as much natural light as you can during the day (at least 30 minutes a day). This may include taking your lunch outside or exercising outdoors rather than at the gym. The exposure to natural light promotes wakefulness when your body is awake, this is actually an important part of your circadian rhythm (which is associated with your body clock). If your body aligns better to your circadian rhythm it will help your body to promote your sleep at bedtime.
Fun fact: It is the blue light of the natural UV light spectrum that promotes wakefulness. Some people who cannot easily get exposure to natural light may use “blue light therapy” during the day to help supplement their lack of real UV light.
