Are you struggling to get to sleep? Do you keep waking up? Do you find it hard to get up in the morning?

Any of these issues can happen at any time especially with poor mental health. We all know that things look better if you can get a decent night’s sleep and so I thought I’d share some things that you can try to help improve your sleep whilst you deal with whatever your mental health challenges are.

The list of things to consider is quite long – and some may seem quite punitive. I’m really not trying to be the fun police but give some ideas of what you can do to improve your sleep. Experiment with them – you probably won’t need to use them all – and find the balance for you between getting quality sleep and living the life you want to lead.

The environment

Ideally you want a bedroom that doesn’t double up as an office, TV room or similar. It should be a calm, quiet space you retreat to for sleep. Keeping it tidy and slightly cool makes it a good environment for sleep – if you can open a window that helps too. Use black out blinds if the light bothers you or an eye mask. If you are particularly sensitive to noise you may wish to use ear plug

Prepare during the day to sleep well at night

Reset your circadian clock daily

Our ability to sleep is helped by our circadian rhythm. To reset our circadian clock each day, try to spend at least 30 – 40 minutes each day in natural daylight. Ideally get sunlight as early in the day as possible – when the temperature is beginning to increase and then again in the afternoon / evening as the temperature begins to decrease. If you can, go outside for a minimum of 10 minutes to get the early morning “sun” and again as the sun goes down. Even if it is a cloudy wet day, the light outside will be greater than any artificial light inside. If you really cant get outside try to position yourself by an East facing window.

Exercise regularly

Daily exercise helps prepare the body for sleep too. Combining exercise with natural light outside is an ideal combination.

Resist caffeine

Whilst caffeine drunk early in the day has time to get out of the system before bed time, we need to remember that it has a half life which varies person to person but is generally 5-6 hours. Caffeine blocks the process of adenosine. Adenosine is a compound that increases from the moment we wake to the moment we sleep and makes us feel increasingly sleepy. We know that people use caffeine to keep going when they are feeling tired. The caffeine does indeed block the adenosine, however when the caffeine leaves the body the adenosine already in the body in addition to that which has been blocked hits the individual and causes a massive slump. This may induce sleep, however, caffeine affects the depth of sleep we experience. Even if you do fall asleep and stay asleep the reduction in the ability to have deep sleep reduces the ability to heal and promotes ageing.

Alcohol

Alcohol is not good for sleep either – it is classed as a sedative, however whilst you may fall asleep quickly your sleep will be fragmented meaning that you wake more. You may be conscious of some wakeful moments but may not be aware of other times when you wake temporarily. This type of sleep means that when you eventually wake you don’t feel restored. Your REM sleep has been blocked and we know that REM sleep is classed as emotional first aid – it is vital for your learning memory and for emotional and mental health. Even 1 glass of wine with dinner leads to less REM sleep

Eating

If possible, finish eating a minimum of 2 hours before going to sleep. That way your body is not still trying to work to digest food.

Taking a nap

Whilst some people can take a nap without it affecting their night time sleep most can’t. If you have a bad nights sleep it is tempting to try to nap the next day – however that nap often disrupts your need for quality sleep at night and you therefore have interrupted sleep again and a vicious circle is in danger of starting. So unless you are one of the few people who can nap without night time consequences – don’t!

Routine

Our mind responds well to a sleep routine – so that means going to bed at the same time each night and getting up at the same time each morning (even on your days off). Its also really good to take various steps to wind down before bed too – maybe take some time breathing or meditating to relax, have a warm bath / shower, listen to a gentle podcast, listen to some relaxing music, have a hot drink (without caffeine / alcohol), read a book etc. Whatever you do to relax do it predictably so the body knows now is the time to prepare for sleep.

Helping you drift off

Counting sheep?

Contrary to popular belief it is not helpful to inducing sleep to count sheep. It can be helpful however to take a mental walk somewhere you would like e.g. on a beach, by the side of a stream etc. As you go on this walk really notice the things around you – what can you see? What can you feel (e.g. the grass under your feet/ the wind in your hair etc). Can you smell anything – is there the smell of newly mown grass / beautiful flowers/ pine trees etc? What do you hear – bird song, the wind in the trees, a babbling brook or is there just wonderful silence? Can you reach out and touch anything? Hopefully this will lull you into sleep.

Listening to music

Listening to classical music has been shown to accelerate sleep. However please set a timer to switch the music off as it will wake you up again if it is still playing when you get into the lighter sleep parts of the sleep cycle.

Clearing your mind

We all know that sleep is often interrupted by things we are concerned about going around in our head. Writing down all the things that are bothering us about 2 hours before bed can often prevent them waking us up. The mind knows that they are recorded to be picked up or discarder the following day.

Gratitude

No matter how awful a day we have had there is always something to be grateful about – perhaps someone unexpectedly made you a drink, or someone let you out into the traffic queue or something on the radio made you smile or perhaps you did something kind for someone else. Write 3 things down just before you fall asleep and you will sleep thinking of them helping to soothe your brain.

Watching the TV and blue light

The TV and scrolling on electronic devises should be avoided for 1-2 hours before bed. Too much light comes from them and that wakes you up!

Additional resources

There is a wealth of information around sleep and things that help.

I particularly like YouTubes and podcast by Dr Matthew Walker - the founder and director of the centre for human sleep science and YouTube or/and podcasts entitled “Master your Sleep” by Huberman labs.