Prioritize Sleep
Want to have a great day? Start the night before.
We all know those days we are sleep-deprived; we end up irritable, foggy, and generally in a worse mood. Sleep directly links to our mental and physical health (did you know lack of sleep is a risk for many health conditions, including dementia?). Sleep is when we create memories, and our brain does a self-clean. Protect it!
Read more about how sleep impacts your mental health and work performance. While we often want to separate our personal lives and work lives, it is evident that your work can affect your sleep and how you sleep impacts your work.
Okay, so we agree; it is important, so how do you improve your sleep?
How to Improve Your Sleep
You cannot think yourself to better sleep. We all know that feeling, lying awake, thinking about how you wish you were sleeping and how counterproductive it is. So what can you do? A couple of quick tips:
DUST off that alarm clock and get your phone out of your room; remove the temptation. We know blue light from devices such as phones and tablets disrupt the quality and quantity of sleep, but did you know that blue light can slow your metabolism.
PROTECT your last hour before sleep. Put electronics away. Connect with people you love, stretch/light yoga, read, meditate. While we cannot think ourselves to sleep, we can calm our minds to put us in the best condition to sleep.
GRAB a paper and pen to put beside your bed. Racing thoughts, remember to pay a bill in the middle of the night? Write it down.
How can you help each other out?
Delay send emails (and make it the norm) if you find yourself working late at night or early in the morning (don’t forget time zones) delay send emails to agreed-upon hours. Telepressure (the urge to respond to electronic communications) is the most significant work stress outside of work hours. Let people rest!
Normalize rest as vital. Talk about it, encourage it, model it. It is not something to hide or deprioritize, especially in periods of stress.
Talk to those you live with about the value of sleep and help each other prioritize and protect sleep.
Educate on sleep hygiene and even adding gifts to make others sleep space enticing.
Bonus: Check out Headspace Guide to Better Sleep on Netflix.
Consciously design your day, or somebody else will.
Dr Lisa Belanger
Lisa has a Ph.D. in Behavioural Medicine, an Executive MBA, and is a Certified Exercise Physiologist and High Performance Specialist.
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