Sleeping well at the best of times, for many of us, is a struggle. When you pile on the festivities and the stress of the Holiday Season, sleep can often take a back seat. But you can do it all – party, manage the brother-in-law stress, and still get a good night’s sleep. And do it again the next day.
Here are some common sense ideas on things you can do throughout the Holidays (and all year in fact) that give you the greatest chance to get the rest you need:
Don’t Be Too Full When You Go To Bed
Waking up in the middle of the night with an upset stomach, or feeling too full to even fall asleep is a trap we all get into this time of year. Slow down the eating in the evening, and give your body a chance to digest everything you’ve already consumed. Those red-hot BBQ shrimp seemed a good idea at 10pm, but I assure you they are no fun at 3am. Slow way down after dinnertime, and limit evening snacks.
If you haven’t overindulged during the day, then a protein and carbohydrate based snack (like a bowl of cereal and milk) about 8pm can help the digestive system to calmly work during the night – neither too hungry nor too full.
Don’t Drink Too Much
This has two meanings.
First, you’re foolish if you think that this festive time of year is when you can become irresponsible with alcohol. Nobody likes a drunk (especially the police). A good tip is to moderate the alcohol by drinking 1:1 – that is have a glass of a non-alcoholic drink (water, punch, soda) for every alcoholic drink you have. Do this all day and night long.
The second half of this tip is to stop drinking altogether a couple of hours before your bedtime. This gives your body a chance to process all that liquid, and to get rid of it before you go to bed. Unless you like waking up at 5am to go pee.
If you’ve had too much to drink that night, still stop a couple of hours before bedtime, get rid of all that liquid before you go to sleep, and have a glass of water immediately before bed. That amount of liquid in an already empty bladder should be OK.
Get Up At The Same Time – Regardless Of When You Go To Bed
This is a year-round tip, and is especially hard to adhere to during the Holidays. We all crave an extra hour or two of sleep. But that can really mess up our sleep cycles. If you can manage this with no ill effects in your sleep patterns – go for it. But if your sleep patterns are already messed up – don’t confuse them further by getting up more than an hour after you normally would (your body should be able to handle an hour without causing too much disruption).
Get Some Exercise Every Day
Again, another year-round tip that we tend to let slide in December. Don’t do it. Find at least a half hour every day where you are getting some exercise – and the more, the better. Take a walk or a bike ride. It not only improves your sleep, it can help with all those extra calories you’ve consumed.
Take A Nap
A bit controversial, but if done right it can aid night time sleep. Take a power nap in the early afternoon – especially if you’re tired because you got to bed late and were up at your regular time. Limit the nap to thirty minutes (set an alarm so you don’t get into a whole sleep cycle – nasty). There are nap programs available for your smartphone that provide soothing music/tones and an alarm after 30 minutes.
Meditate or Yoga The Holidays Away
This may just prove to be the most useful and powerful of all the tips here. The ability to quiet your mind (and your body) during the most stressful time of the year is very, very powerful. You can use music and tones (downloadable on the net) to meditate by – they can help you easily slide into the “alpha state”.
These tips aren’t just for the insomniacs in the crowd – they are for everyone. Remember to take some time for yourself this season – both your sleep and your health (mental and physical) will thank you.
