With the stresses of modern life, it can be difficult to switch off when it’s time to go to bed. The benefits of a good night’s sleep cannot be underestimated, but with research finding that up to a quarter of adolescents suffer from insomnia, these benefits aren’t being felt by everyone. In a world of artificial light and pressure to work late into the evening, the key to restoring a healthy sleeping pattern for many of us lies in regulating our body clocks and learning to better recognise and listen to sleep cues.

 

Increasing understanding around the link between sleep and wellbeing can bring the importance of proper rest into focus. Poor mental wellbeing can make it harder to sleep while less sleep can be detrimental to our wellbeing; it’s a vicious cycle that can sometimes feel difficult to break. 

 

The social perception of sleep also changes in young adulthood, as it’s pushed down the list of priorities in order to see friends, use social media or watch a Netflix series instead. Education on the effects of lack of sleep, including a decreased attention span, poorer impulse control and lowered mood, can be a reminder that a restful night should be regarded with the same importance as good diet and exercise. Listening to our bodies and our emotions, as with many areas of wellbeing, is the first step to bettering our sleeping habits.

 

Our internal body clock controls the circadian rhythms that make us feel tired or alert at different times during the day. In teenage years, sleep cycles change as melatonin is released later at night, delaying sleep. This is why our senior schools have adjusted mid-week start times which accommodate the teenage sleep pattern, allowing our pupils to sleep in a bit later and hopefully get their recommended 9 hours. 

 

The timing of this body clock can be reinforced with a good routine, particularly making sure that we go to sleep and wake up at similar times every day to regulate our sleep cycle. Having access to lots of sunlight in the daytime can be key to ensuring that our bodies know when it’s time to settle down for the night when it gets darker. 

 

Making our bedrooms a sanctuary will help to create a safe space for sleep, too; comfortable bedding, blackout curtains, and jasmine scented candles can ease the transition into sleep, but what works best differs from person to person. Removing things that we may find distracting or that make it more difficult to sleep will improve our ‘sleep hygiene’. It may help to limit screens in the bedroom and to only go to the bedroom once tired, making sure that it’s a place solely for sleep and reinforcing the connection within our mind and body that it’s time to snooze.

 

Lifestyle changes can be difficult when we have busy schedules and other priorities. There are smaller, everyday tips that we can implement though, to help get to sleep and stay asleep; many people find that white noise or the sound of rain help them to drift off and these are easy to find on YouTube and Spotify, or can be played via smartspeaker with a timer set to switch them off after a certain amount of time. Calming smells, like lavender, are available in pillow sprays or diffusers and can help the room to feel like a relaxing place to be. Some moderate intensity exercise, like yoga, an hour before bedtime can get some of us to fall asleep faster and get a more restful night’s sleep. A warm bath or shower can also help – the drop in temperature afterwards mimics the drop in temperature at nightfall, which is a sleep cue for our bodies.

 

Essentially, by improving our everyday habits we can better the rest we get and bring huge improvements to our wellbeing. In a digital, always-awake world, sleeping can be pushed down the to-do list in favour of short-term productivity, but we are better prepared to be productive if our mind and bodies have had a chance to rest.