It’s coming—Friday, 15 March—Happy World Sleep Day!
World Sleep Day is a great opportunity to take stock of your sleep, identify any issues and make a plan to improve your sleep health. So we’re sharing the wisdom from World Sleep Day with you, our community, as well as some sleep tips to help you get control of your sleep health.
If you find this article helpful, get into the World Sleep Day spirit and share it with a friend! And if you’d like to participate in World Sleep Day, you can find everything you need right here.
The theme of this year’s World Sleep Day is Sleep Equity for Global Health.
Not everybody in the world has access to adequate sleep: the duration, quality, and comfort level of our sleep varies. And the impacts of sleep health disparity are significant. Basically, sleep is essential for good health, but we don’t all enjoy the same kind of sleep.
This is why World Sleep Day exists: to share knowledge and raise awareness around sleep health and, of course, to celebrate healthy sleep!
With that, let’s get sleepy!
Keeping on Top of Your Sleep Health
The folks from World Sleep Day advise that “healthy sleep” means more than simply “enough sleep”. They note six dimensions that affect sleep health, which ultimately affects overall health and wellbeing.
If you’d like to play along at home, we suggest you note down your current answers to each question, and then implement a plan to improve your sleep health (we’ve got some tips for that below). In a month, answer the questions again and see if anything has changed, or if you might need to try something different:
Duration: how much did you sleep over 24 hours?
Efficiency: how well do you fall asleep and stay asleep?
Timing: when do you sleep?
Regularity: do you have consistent sleep and wake times?
Alertness: do you maintain good focus and attention during waking hours?
Quality: do you feel satisfied with your sleep?
If you wake up one day with all six dimensions in balance, chances are you’ll be waking up on the right side of the bed! And if you don’t, keep reading—our 12 tips below could help get you there.
12 Tips for Healthy Sleep
These tips are based on information published by the sleep-loving folks at Harvard Medical School. See how many of them you might like to tweak in your own sleep journey:
1. Avoid caffeine at night
That evening cuppa joe might get you through the dreaded Witching Hour, but it also impairs your ability to fall asleep and stay that way. Try to avoid having caffeine after 5pm.
2. Turn your bedroom into a sleep sanctuary
Remove distractions, and rely on natural light, rather than bright or overhead lighting late at night. Make your bed every morning, so that it feels nice to get into. Choose linen that feels good on your skin. Basically, turn your bedroom into a place that you find relaxing and calming—a place that just feels good to land in at the end of the day.
3. Low-key evenings
It’s remarkably easy to get stimulated at night, and go from sooo sleepy to “where’s the party?!”. So keep evening activities low-key: light reading before bed, drawing, or listening to a meditation to help you drift off. Keep things low key, and put the work emails away!
4. Go to bed, only when you're tired!
Ever tried to fall asleep when you’re not tired? It’s really frustrating. Experts recommend leaving your bedroom environment and doing something calming like reading, journalling or drawing. In case it needs to be said again: work emails do not count!
5. Stop watching the clock
6. The sun is a really good light
7. Keep your sleep schedule consistent
8. Love a nap? Get in early, or skip it altogether
9. Avoid late night eating
A full stomach right before bed can make it harder to achieve quality sleep. You can try making a closing time for your eating window 2 to 4 hours before bed, so that your body has enough time to digest before you head to bed.
10. Strengthen your pelvic floor (or watch your fluids)
Not keen on those trips to the bathroom in the wee hours, pun intended? There are two things you can do here: reduce your fluid intake in the evenings, and/or introduce some surreptitious pelvic floor exercises to your day. Among the many benefits of a strong pelvic floor: uninterrupted sleep!
10. Exercise early
While it’s best to exercise at whatever time actually fits with your schedule, working out too close to bedtime can result in a lower quality of sleep. The best time to exercise for optimal sleep for most people is in the morning. If you prefer the outdoors for a sweat sesh, all the better: the morning sun is excellent for regulating your circadian rhythm.
10. Commit!
This is no small task, but we’re getting there: we strive every day to support our customers on their journey to great sleep. Our partnership with Woven Earth, The Pillow Project, has helped deliver over 1000 brand new, quality pillows to families in need.
And we now have 28 stores (and 7 more coming soon!) fitted with Sleepmap: an innovative, state of the art bed matching system. It uses thousands of sensors to create a sleep profile unique to you, and matches you with a bed from the extensive and trusted BedsRus range that meets your individual requirements.
