SLEEP HYGIENE
Paying attention to sleep hygiene is one of the most straightforward ways that you can set yourself up for better quality rest. Strong sleep hygiene means
• Creating a bedroom environment that is comfortable and free from disruptions
• Daily routines that promote consistent, uninterrupted sleep
• Following a relaxing pre-bed routine
• Maintaining a stable sleep schedule,
• Building healthy habits during the day
• Designing your personal sleep hygiene practices to your individual needs and preferences is crucial for optimising sleep.
MEDITATION
Many people know the feeling of being unable to sleep due to stress. Once sleep problems begin, they can also trigger anxiety around the idea of bedtime, making it even more difficult to rest. Meditation is one technique that can relieve stress at bedtime to fall asleep more easily. Mindfulness meditations or guided meditations that promote imagery in the mind can be distracting from the anxiety created by insomnia, as can bedtime stories.
Bedroom Environment:
Customise your bedroom environment to suit your preferences. This might include choosing the right mattress and pillows that suit your comfort and osteopathic needs, selecting calming colours for bedroom decor, a soothing scent and adding personal touches that make your haven for sleep feel personalised and inviting. Research shows that the temperature of the bedroom is key to securing a good night’s rest, too.
Diet and Timing: Pay attention to how your body responds to food and drink in the hours leading up to bedtime. Some people may be more sensitive to caffeine or heavy meals, so adjust your diet and timing accordingly. It's a good idea to experiment and observe how different foods and beverages affect your sleep.
AMBIENT NOISE
Colours of a noise are often used to describe the power spectrum of the sound, such as strength and vibrational frequency. Sound travels in waves: From high frequency tight, short waves to low frequency long, slow waves and everything in between.
White noise: This phenomenon of white noise refers to ‘auditory masking’ or drowning out or distracting from other noise, which can reduce anxiety levels. As a background sound, white noise can also change the auditory threshold and thereby reduce brain stimulation. White noise uses a mix of sound frequencies to create a static-like sound. It is usually quite intense and high-pitched, like a fan or a vacuum cleaner.
SLEEP STORIES
There's a reason adults are drawn to bedtime stories, and it goes beyond whimsy and nostalgia or comfort. By distracting the mind from worries and self-sabotaging thoughts, the body's adrenaline and cortisol are reduced, enabling the brain can transition into sleep. This is because we rarely think about the words being read to us; instead, we paint a picture in our minds of what is happening.In the REM (rapid eye movement part of our sleep cycle), our dreams are at their most intense and are in pictures. Switching on our brain’s imagination before dozing off with bedtime stories can help us prepare for a restful night. The soothing sound of a soft voice can also bring comfort.
YOGA NIDRA
Yoga nidra, or yogic sleep, is an immensely powerful meditation technique, and one of the easiest yoga practices to develop and maintain. Resting comfortably in savasana (corpse pose), this systematic meditation takes you through the pancha maya kosha or five layers of self, leaving you with a sense of peace, calm and wholeness. Perfect for drifting into peaceful slumber…
NSDR
Non-sleep deep rest, or NSDR for short, is a method of deep relaxation. A form of guided meditation, NSDR combines mindful breathing and body scanning to bring you into an aware, yet relaxed state. A 10-20 min non-sleep deep rest practice is thought to replenish physical energy and increase cognitive function as much as steve4 hours of sleep.
MUSIC
Besides drawing out distracting noise which keeps us awake at night, there are a number of significant ways that music promotes a restful night’s slumber.
The ability to hear music depends on a series of steps that convert sound waves coming into the ear into electrical signals in the brain. As the brain interprets these sounds, a cascade of physical effects are triggered within the body. Many of these effects either directly promote sleep or reduce issues that interfere with sleep.
Several studies suggest that music enhances sleep because of its effects on the regulation of hormones, including reducing the stress hormone cortisol, release of the pleasure hormone dopamine and soothing the autonomic nervous system, soothing the body through slower breathing, lower heart rate, and reduced blood pressure. Physical and psychological responses to music are effective in reducing both acute and chronic physical pain.
