Catching Your Z’s
Setting a good nighttime routine can have a surprising, and not so surprising, impact. A lack of quality sleep can make you tired and clumsy at the very least, but even worse, it can negatively effect your immune system. When you don’t get enough sleep at night, your body has no time to recover from the day and allows the walls of your immune system to begin to break down. In a time when maintaining your health has never been more important, just making sure you get enough sleep could be the easiest and most beneficial thing you do for yourself and your workday performance.
Profit from Seasonal Transitions
With the changing of the seasons, even from Summer to Fall, comes the need to adjust our schedules and routine. Different seasons bring out different sleeping habits. Recognizing your own patterns and adjusting your routine to comply with your body’s demands should be simple and beneficial to your overall life.
It’s science! Our bodies react to the light levels outside as a reminder to get some sleep. Using the lack of natural light to move up the time you go to bed is an excellent use in utilizing seasonal transitions. Use the Fall months as a slow shift into going to bed earlier. Listen to your body and catch some Zzzz’s.
Tips and Tricks to Optimize Your Evening Routine
- Gather Your Stuff: I am really bad about forgetting little things and wasting time in the morning trying to remember why it feels like I’m forgetting something. To combat this, I do a general round up of most of my things the night before. I grab my purse, keys, coffee cup, and sometimes I even pre-load my purse with water and snacks. My routine limits my forgetfulness and fear.
- Plan Ahead: You don’t have to know exactly what you want to wear the next day, but if you start thinking about it the night before you’ll be better off. Finding things ahead of time like your shoes, your purse and keys, or your name-tag and putting it all together makes for a smoother transition in the morning.
- Set Aside Lunches: Something I started doing when my husband and I both started working full time was portioning meals. When we’re done with dinner and it’s time to put the leftovers away, instead of finding one bog container for everything, I have been portioning out meals for packing. We picked-up some food storage containers and even though it creates more dishes, it helps us remember to pack the food we already made, which in-turn helps our budget.
- Go To Bed at a Decent Time: I’m not saying to simply go to bed early, sometimes that’s just not feasible. But what I am suggesting is to make sure you get enough sleep where you feel you can function properly the next day. We’re all aware that some people don’t need as much sleep as others. If you don’t know which you are, try keeping track of your sleeping habits. Just grab a notebook, list the time you feel asleep and the time you woke up with a short description of how you feel in the morning. If notebooks aren’t your thing, keep the list in the notes application of your phone. Just make sure you are giving your body enough time to rest and recover from the day, which will help maintain your immune system.
- Create a Time of Comfort and Peace: This isn’t me saying that technology is bad for you and that you shouldn’t be on your phone right before bed. However, some people find that unplugging from their phones before they go to sleep results in a more restful night. You may want to incorporate some lavender lotion or some white noise from a fan into your nightly routine. It’s really up to each individual on what they find peaceful. When you’re at peace and comfortable you are more apt to fall asleep soundly.
Struggling with Sleep
If you find that you are struggling with your sleep, don’t hesitate to talk to your doctor about it. It’s not normal to be tired all the time and who better to talk to about it with than a professional. You can even schedule a tele-visit given our current Covid-19 pandemic.
Many people suffer from sleeping disorders and without the proper tools to combat it, fulfilling your professional and personal obligations can be difficult. .
Extras!
This post was strongly inspired by the Sleep Foundation articles, “Working New Hours? How to Reset Your Sleep Routine” and “Sleep deprivation effect on the immune system mirrors physical stress.”
For tips and tricks on working hard and pushing through fatigue, check out our previous blog posts like, “How to Work Hard When You Feel Burnt Out.“