Sleep impacts everything, Our skin, our energy levels, our metabolism, our ability to communicate, make decisions and rationalise. I mean, we all know that when we've not slept very well we're a tad irritable, right?!
There's nothing worse than getting yourself in to that angry cycle of exhaustion and chasing sleep, so we've trawled the internet and had a look for the best sleep remedies and tips.
1. Routine.
Your bedroom should be for two things and one of those things is sleep (I'll let you use your imagination for the other!). Leave your work/laptop and phone in another room. In fact, a great routine is to put your phone on charge in a separate room at least 1 hour before you plan to snooze. Then create a routine that you do every night. For example; cup of sleepy tea, clean your teeth, put on pjs, take off make-up, put on your moisturiser (we can actually highly recommend this Oils of Life Sleeping Cream by The Bodyshop), plump up the pillow and get comfy.
2. Darkness, darkness everywhere.
Light triggers the part of your brain that says "hey! It's daytime, wake up sleep head!". So we want to avoid light as much as possible. If part of your routine is to read, we love using the Philips Wake up Light - it wakes you up and sends you to sleep simulating sunrise and sunset - and we use the 45 minute sunset feature to read. Sleep masks are also a great way to get rid of any unwanted light.
3. Sleepy Scents.
Everyone knows lavender helps sleep. Whether you stuff it in a pillow, rub it on your feet or waft it around your room, lavender is definitely something you should have to hand. Cherish Skincare do a gorgeous bedtime mist called Sleep Well and it's a bargain at £14.50. We use ours every night and spritz it over our pillow and at the top of the duvet.
4. Meditation
Going to bed with a head full of buzzing words, thoughts and ideas? That's unlikely to let you drift happily off into a blissful sleep.
Before you go to bed, grab a pen and paper and write down all of those whirling thoughts and ideas. Then, give yourself 30 minutes to relax; do a calming meditation. If you struggle with meditating on your own, you can download plenty of good podcasts.
Another great podcast is called Nothing Much Happens, it tells beautiful calming stories about wonderful things like cottages, cosy cats and warm suppers.
The great thing is, if you have an iPhone, you can also set your phone timer to "Stop Playing", so you can play your podcast and it will automatically turn itself off after a specific time.
We'd love to see you try some of these and if you want even more advice on sleep and how to get some, head over to the Sleep Council website - they have so much advice!
About the Author
Emma is the Founder of Women Who Do, running networking events in Winchester, Southampton and Exeter. She has worked in marketing for almost 10 years and runs a successful marketing consultancy.
If you'd like to be featured as a guest blogger you can contact her on emma@womenwd.co.uk or to join one of our events, take a look at what's on near you: https://www.womenwd.co.uk/get-involved
