Sleep: One third of your life that makes the rest possible

CONFESSION: In my experience it is really hard to get people to work on their sleep habits. However it is foundational to mental and physical health so I think it is my responsibility to include this page....

Often when we are caught up in thoughts, feelings, and routines that aren't serving us our sleep suffers. Unfortunately poor sleep can start to make our emotional and cognitive responses less satisfying and helpful.

The good news is you don’t have to wait for your life to improve to have a better sleep. You can get ahead of the game, starting to put good sleep practices in place. And addressing your sleep (and diet and exercise and social connections) will support our work together.

Here, courtesy of Stanford University, are a few important aspects of “Sleep Hygene”.

• Sleep only when sleepy
• If you can’t fall asleep within 20 minutes, get up and do something boring until you feel sleepy
• Don’t take naps
• Get up and go to bed at the same time every day
• Don’t exercise within 4 hours of bedtime
• Develop sleep rituals
• Only use your bed for sleeping (and sex)
  
• Stay away from caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol at least 4 – 6 hours before bed
• Have a light snack before bed
  
• Take a hot bath 90 minutes before bed
• Make sure your bed and bedroom are quiet and comfortable
• use sunlight to set your biological clock

Don’t be put off of improving your sleep because some of these seem unworkable or even impossible. Stick to those you are doing now, increase the frequency of the ones you do some of the time, and pick one or two new ones to add to your routine.

You can read more about it of these at: http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/howto.html