How To Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Unlike most people who toss and turn all night, we are skilled sleepers. Even our FitBit analytics show our lack of movement and “awake-ness” during our entire sleep cycle… you’d think we were comatose for eight hours a night. All of that being said, we thought it’d be a good idea to share our tips & tricks for sleeping soundly through the night in hope that one of these tips works for you.
Best Practices, Always
Try and wake up at the same time on the weekends & weekdays. This may be hard (and not fun!) for some, but even if you can get close it will help. Let’s say you wake up at 6:30am every weekday morning, do your best to get up by 8am on weekends.
Find out how many hours of sleep work best for you. Force yourself to get in bed so you’ll get at least 7-8 hours of sleep before your alarm goes off in the morning, and take note of how you feel after 7 hours, 7.5 hours, 8 hours, etc. until you find your magic number.
Don’t watch TV or do any work in your bedroom before bedtime. You want your mind to know that your bedroom is a place dedicated to rest, relaxation & sleep – leave those other activities for the living room – or if you live in a studio, at least not on your bed.
Keep your sheets clean. Not only did we just read a really disgusting article about what goes on microscopically when sheets are dirty, but it’s easier to get to bed when your sheets are soft & fresh.
Avoid coffee and caffeine after 3pm, and drink lots of water throughout the day! There’s nothing worse than trying to get to bed and being thirsty, but then having to get up in the middle of the night because you drank too much water too close to bedtime.
Exercise! The end all, cure all for most things also helps you get to sleep easier if it’s done earlier in the day – exercising right before bed will only energize your mind & body.
Light a relaxing essential oil candle or diffuser in your room an hour or so before you typically go to sleep. We love this lavender vanilla candle and this diffuser!
Getting to Bed
Get into your most comfortable sleeping position. Relax your body and your mind. Breath slowly and deeply while continuing to relax the muscles throughout your whole body and face. Envision darkness and if your mind wanders, come back to that nothingness and keep breathing slowly. Pretty soon, you’ll be sound asleep without even knowing it happened. I mean if it works for fighter pilots that need some serious shut eye, it works for us. And if after all of that, you’re still not sleepy? Try reading a book for 10-15 minutes until your eyes start to get droopy & invest in a nice silk sleep mask.
How to Get Back to Bed in the Middle of the Night
Whatever you do, don’t check your phone before you go back to sleep. Your mind will start wandering & thinking of all things you need to do when you wake up. Instead, stay in a relaxed state. Keep your eyes closed (for the most part), move slowly, and when it’s time to get into back to bed, follow all of the same steps as you did when you fell asleep.
We really hope these tips & tricks work for you! We feel so grateful that we don’t struggle with getting to or staying asleep, and we want everyone to experience the joy of waking up every morning feeling refreshed. If you have any go-to sleep tricks, we’d love to hear them. Please share your experience with sleep in the comments!